If Only Love Was Easy
by whyam1writing
Summary: 'Ebony was already struggling to be the 'perfect daughter' her parents wanted, falling in love with Neville was the last thing she needed' AU where Rodolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange have a daughter who is in Gryffindor and is the same age as Draco Malfoy.Warning: Contains violence, abuse and strong language
1. Third Year - 1

It had been an hour but the screaming downstairs refused to cease. Ebony tucked herself further into the corner and tried to concentrate on the book propped up against her knees. She couldn't even remember what they were fighting about, she only hoped that they would either cool off soon or keep the fight downstairs so that their anger wouldn't be taken out on her again. It always seemed to be her fault. Ever since she had been put into Gryffindor her parents' anger seemed to focus on her a lot more, though sometimes she did ask for it by saying things that were more than acceptable at Hogwarts but not in the very pureblood elitist household she lived in, the bruise across her cheek bore witness to that.

Ebony sighed and closed the book, unable to focus on 'Fantastic Beasts and where to find them' with the screeching going on in the background. She flopped her head back against the wall and stared out the window at the stars glimmering in the sky. She just needed to hold on for one more day and then she would be back at Hogwarts for her third year. The thought of the place made her smile. The Lestrange manor was an awfully lonely place to be and while Ebony wouldn't necessarily say that she had many friends at Hogwarts, she would say that she wasn't lonely. At least at Hogwarts people smiled at her, made her smile and well she just felt comfortable there. At Hogwarts, she could breathe and let her guard down, relax. At Hogwarts, she was home.

She crawled across the room to her bed and pulled her school trunk out from under it. She opened it and rummaged around until she found her scarf. The red and gold wool was soft on her fingers and she held it up to her face to breathe in its scent, to calm her self. The smell made her think of the common room. The crackling of the fire. The laughter that always seemed to be there, most likely the result of the Weasley twins. Oliver Wood's endless talk of Quidditch. Neville and his plants.

Neville, he was the only person who Ebony could call a friend which amused her since, he of all people, should hate her the most. But he didn't. She wasn't quite sure how the whole friendship started, he understandably seemed wary of her at first but then, by some miracle, they ended up becoming quite close. they would stay up in the common room at night, both of them troubled by nightmares that neither wanted to talk about. But they would talk about other things, about everything from food to their deepest fears.

Ebony thought of his smile. His eyes. Merlin, she could get lost in them. The way he tapped his wand against his knee when he was thinking. She'd never had a friend like him before. If her parents ever found out they would be furious. But they wouldn't, she would make sure of it. She would protect him at all costs.

Ebony found herself snapped out of her daydream by the slamming of a door. The house had finally fallen silent. She breathed a sigh of relief. Now she could finally get some sleep. She folded her scarf back into the trunk and shoved it under the bed. Her parents didn't like seeing her school trunk, it reminded them how much of a disappointment their only daughter was.

Climbing into bed Ebony found herself still smiling at the thought of home.


	2. Third Year - 2

As she sat at the breakfast table the next morning, Ebony could still feel the tension from last nights argument. Her father, Rodolphus, was tucked behind the Daily Prophet and hadn't looked up since she came into the room. Her mother, Bellatrix, was busy writing something but Ebony didn't want to risk looking over to see what it was. Instead, she returned to her scrambled eggs on toast, Ebony thought eggs were revolting but she daren't mention that to either of her parents or she would end up with no breakfast whatsoever.

The silence was finally broken by her father. He folded the paper up and turned to face his daughter.

"The Malfoys will be here to collect you at 9:30 so I expect you downstairs before then"

"Yes, Father." Ebony glanced up at her father and then returned to her breakfast. She could feel his eyes burning into the side of her head but she pretended to be very interested in her food. Whatever he was going to say next could not be good.

"I feel that we need to have a little discussion about your behaviour this term, don't we dear?" There was something in his tone that made it clear that the conflict last night was not yet forgotten.

At this Bellatrix stopped what she was doing and joined her husband in glaring at her daughter. Ebony gulped and then looked up to meet her fathers gaze.

"Your results thus far have been truly atrocious. We expect this to change." His eyes narrowed at her as he spoke."

Ebony took a shaky breath. " I'll try."

"No" At this Ebony turned to face her mother, confusion on her face.

"W-What?." Ebony stammered

Bellatrix seized her daughter by the wrist and brought her close to her face. "You will improve your results or there will be severe consequences. We won't have you shaming us by making everyone think that we not only have a Gryffindor piece of shit for a daughter but a thick one at that. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes ma'am"

"Good, now clear off and get ready." Bellatrix dropped her daughter's wrist and returned to her writing. Ebony shot a look at her father who glared and then jerked his head toward the door. Ebony slid off her chair and left the room as quickly as possible.

Ebony threw herself on her bed. She wasn't that bad at school. Sure, she was no Hermione but she still tried. .It was just that she could never really get the hang of anything. Except for DADA, which probably had something to do with growing up with the dark arts. However, she still received fairly low marks but these were more down to a lack of a competent and consistent teacher. Maybe this year would be different. It would have to be. Or she was dead.


	3. Third Year - 3

Ebony dragged her trunk down the stairs, wincing as it thudded on every step, knowing full well that her father wouldn't appreciate her battering the floor but she wasn't strong enough to lift it. Once at the bottom, she shoved it by the door of the living room and went to the bathroom.

She looked into the mirror and sighed. The bruise across her cheekbone had now turned a nasty purple yellow despite her efforts. There was no way to hide it, Neville was bound to ask questions, he always did. Ebony knew it was out of concern but sometimes she wished he would just shut up and mind his own damn business.

If only she had kept her mouth shut.

To be fair she never intended for anyone to hear, a mutter during one of her mother's rants, a comment on the stupidity of blood purity. She shouldn't have expected anything less than a smack across the face. It seemed that even after 13 years she underestimated her parents' short tempers.

Imagine if they knew she was friends with Neville.

"EBONY", her mother screeched from the hall. The bathroom clock read 9:30.

"Shit.." She muttered, slipping out of the bathroom.

Narcissa and Draco stood in the hall, Narcissa rambling on to her mother and Draco was picking at his cloak, clearly bored by the conversation. Thankfully Lucius and her father seemed to be elsewhere. Ebony crept over to them, hoping that perhaps they forgot that she was late.

"How nice of you to join us, darling." The cold tone and expression showed that her mother meant no affection with the remark. Ebony mumbled an apology and Bellatrix went back to the conversation with her sister.

"Hey", Ebony flashed a smile at Draco, who stood next to his mother, as he looked up from fiddling with his cloak to meet eyes with his cousin.

"Hi," he said before his eyes landed on her cheek. He opened his mouth as if to say something but was cut off by Lucius and Rodolphus coming down the stairs, loudly announcing that it was time to leave.

Bellatrix led her sister into the living room where the Floo was, quickly followed by Lucius who ushered his son away from Ebony, casting a knowing look at Rodolphus. Ebony picked up her trunk and made to follow them but her father held up his arm and stopped her.

"I trust that you won't forget our little discussion at breakfast" Rodolphus was staring her straight in the eyes.

"Of course not," Ebony said, giving her father a forced smile.

"Good." Her father squeezed her shoulder and followed the rest of the family into the next room.

Ebony looked at her father as he left and touched her shoulder where he had as if holding onto the small act of affection.

Then she followed the others into the next room.


	4. Third Year - 4

Platform 9 3/4 was bustling as always when Ebony and the Malfoys got through the barrier and the sight of the scarlet red engine filled Ebony with joy. She was eager to slip away from her family and onto the train, but Lucius' frequent glares made sure that she stayed with them.

It was only once Narcissa had finished fussing over Draco and Lucius muttered that he had somewhere to be that she and Draco waved them goodbye and carried on up the platform. Ebony scanned around her for any sight of Neville but couldn't find him.

After about a minute Ebony realised that Draco must have found his friends as he was no longer walking beside her. 'Good,' she thought. Now there would be no unwanted questions or remarks from him. She boarded the train through a door near the back.

Luckily they had arrived fairly early so there were still plenty of empty compartments. She found one and had just tried and failed to lift her trunk onto the rack above her when there was a clatter and a yelp from outside the door. She smiled.

Popping her head out the door, she looked at the ground to find exactly who she thought she would. Neville. The brown-haired boy was sprawled on top of his trunk which was wedged in the passageway. She felt something on her foot and bent down to just in time to catch Trevor the toad who had decided to go for a wander before returning her attention to her friend on the floor.

"Need a hand?" Ebony said, trying to resist laughing. Neville looked up at her and grinned.

"Maybe," he replied.

They both snorted with laughter. Trevor hopped out of ebony's hand and into the open compartment. Ebony then helped slide the trunk out from under Neville and through the doorway. Neville shut the door behind him and together they managed to lift both trunks into the rack. They sank into seats, both tired from the effort.

It was only then that Neville noticed Ebony's face and his grin faltered."It's nothing", Ebony muttered before Neville even had a chance to open his mouth."I'm fine."

"You're clearly not.". Neville's smile had now been replaced with a look of concern. "What happened?"

Ebony was picking at her fingernails."Nothing. Not really. Just pissed off my mum alright?!" She didn't mean to snap. Neville looked taken aback. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"No I'm sorry," said Neville, giving her a sympathetic smile. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

"I just don't want to talk about it, let me forget that they exist for a couple of months."Ebony returned the smile. Neville's grin had returned, and he suggested a game of exploding snap.

It was then that the whistle blew, letting them know that they were off to Hogwarts for another year.


	5. Third Year - 5

Fred slid some sickles over the table to George with a sigh. They had been placing bets on the new first years' houses, and Fred had got almost every other one wrong. George was just making a grand gesture of putting the money into his pocket when the chatting in the hall died down. Dumbledore was standing at the Front.

"I would first like to welcome our new students to their first year at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, "And would also like to say welcome back to all our other students." There were a couple of cheers.

"However," Dumbledore continued, "There are a few matters that I must get through before the feast can begin. First, I would like to welcome the newest addition to our staff Professor Remus Lupin who will be the Defense against the dark arts teacher." A tired-looking man with patches on his robes stood up and there was polite applause except for the small group of Gryffindors, who clapped loudly and cheered for his actions against the Dementor on the train.

After he had sat down, Dumbledore continued. "Finally, as many of you are already aware of from their inspection of the Hogwarts Express on your journey here, this year we will be housing some of the dementors of Azkaban. Now, these creatures are looking for Sirius Black and are here for our protection. However, this does not mean that they will not attack any students who may get too curious for their own good."Dumbledore paused, giving all of the students a stern look.

"But now I ask that you enjoy your meal and then get well rested for the year ahead." There was a round of applause as Dumbledore finished and the plates filled with food.

Ebony began to wolf down her food quickly as if someone might come and take it away from her. She was hungry, having spent the previous week holed up in her room after arguing with her mother and was only fed when her parents remembered she existed. Which wasn't often.

Once the feast was over, they made their way up the stairs and Ebony and Neville got a telling off from Percy for blocking the way and being an obstruction, even though Neville was clearly stuck in the trick step which he failed to jump almost every time.

Ebony had to wait for everyone to pass before she could help him up. She pulled with such force that she sent herself toppling over and Neville fell on top of her.

"Er...sorry," Neville said, blushing. But for a brief moment, all Ebony wanted was to look into his eyes. They were calming. Made her feel safe. It was as if she was looking right into his soul-

Then an Irish voice came from the landing above them.

"Once you two have stopped flirting the password's collywobbles."

They continued to stare for a moment. Then both of them burst out laughing.

**Author Note:**

**I would first like to thank everyone for their support on this series - never really expected anyone to read this.**

**On another note, I would like to add that I'm not very pleased with this chapter. If you couldn't tell already I think I am better at writing interactions and emotional stuff rather than stuff that just happens.**

**So bare with my dodgy writing and hope you enjoy what's to come!**

**:)**


	6. Third Year - 6

_"Crucio!" Ebony writhed and twisted in pain, her vision blurred. She cried out, begging for the pain to stop but it only made her mother laugh. _

_"You should have thought about this before you went and got put in a house full of blood-traitors." Bellatrix's voice swirled around her head. _

_"I…I didn't…" Ebony tried to speak but felt a wave of nausea rush over her. _

_"I don't want to hear it you piece of shit. Cruc-" _

_"She's had enough Bella." Her father had entered the room. _

Ebony awoke in a cold sweat and sat up, shaking. She buried her face in her hands. The Christmas holidays of her first year were the worst. She had never seen either of her parents that angry before, especially her father who preferred to be cold and distant and let his wife do the dirty work. However, that didn't seem to stop him getting a few blows in. The memory of that holiday was among the worst of her nightmares and plagued her often.

She sunk back against her pillow. The early morning sun was softly streaming through the windows. Ebony decided that she was better off just getting up as she was too shaken to get any more sleep. So, she got dressed and went to brush her teeth.

In the mirror, the bruise on her cheek was now less purple than it was before, thanks to some random cream that Neville's grandmother had put in his trunk to help with his frequent injuries due to his somewhat lack of balance and spatial awareness. It was still noticeable, but Ebony hoped that her hair would be enough to hide the majority of it from sight. She then finished up in the bathroom and went downstairs to read while she waited for Neville.

About an hour later students began stumbling downstairs, chatting and rubbing their eyes. Ebony caught Seamus and Dean as they came into the room. "Is Neville up yet?" she asked.

"Yes, he woke up about 15 minutes ago," Dean said. "Seems to have lost his shoes." Ebony smiled and shook her head.

"He'd lose his head if it wasn't screwed on."

* * *

The boy's dorm was a mess. It was hard to believe that they hadn't even been at Hogwarts for a day and yet there were clothes and books everywhere. Though Neville's frantic searching was probably at least partly to blame. The only orderly thing in the room was a pair of shoes parked neatly by the door. Ebony picked them up, the inside heel read 'NL'. "Looking for these?" she said.

There was a thud as Neville jumped at her voice, clearly not expecting there to be anyone else in the room. He crawled out from under the bed looking rather dishevelled and gave a sigh of relief when he saw what Ebony was holding. "Where were they?" He asked, taking his shoes from her.

"Sat neatly by the door," Neville looked confused. "It seems that you thought you might lose them so you put them somewhere you would see them." Ebony giggled, "You're too smart for your own good."

Neville smiled and then said, "Come on, I'm starving and if we don't get down quick enough Ron will have eaten everything."

They both laughed. As Neville made his way out the door he held out his hand for Trevor who hopped on and then into Neville's pocket.

**Authors Note:**

**Far more happy with this chapter than the previous!**

**Again thank you so much for your support- Much more to come from this series.**


	7. Third Year - 7

"Do you reckon that he's going to be nice?" Neville asked. They were in the DADA classroom waiting for Professor Lupin to arrive.

"Definitely," Ebony said, an air of certainty to her voice.

"How do you know?"

Ebony smiled, "He seems like the kind of person my mother would sneer at and tell me to stay away from. Which obviously means that he's a good person because everything that my mother says is complete and utter bullshit." Ebony spat the last few words unintentionally. The thought of her mother just made her angry. Made her want to punch something. Neville, however, seemed completely unaware and was laughing at the comment she had made. Ebony looked at him and smiled. She didn't know what it was about him but his presence just made her feel so at ease, so calm, so safe.

The chatting in the room died down as Professor Lupin arrived. "Good afternoon," he said, leaning against the desk. Ebony noticed he looked less tired than he did yesterday. "You'll only need your wands today so put your books away and follow me." Everyone was happy to hear this. Practical lessons were always more fun, though they had never had a practical DADA lesson before.

The class followed Professor Lupin down the corridor where they ran into Peeves, who was stuffing chewing gum into a keyhole. When he saw them a wide grin spread across his face and he began to sing, "Loony Lupin, loony loopy Lupin." Professor Lupin was smiling.

"You better take that gum out," he said, "Or Filch won't be able to get into his cupboard." Peeves didn't seem to care and blew a raspberry in response. Professor Lupin sighed before going up to the door. "Watch this, Waddiwassi!"

The gum flew out of the keyhole and right up Peeves' nose which caused him to shoot off, cursing as he went.

"Cool, sir" Dean exclaimed.

"Thank you, Dean." Professor Lupin then continued leading them down the corridor and then ushered them into the staff room. It was a large room with only one occupant, Professor Snape. He got up as Professor Lupin went to close the door.

"Leave it open, I'd rather not see this." He said, striding across the room. The class stepped back as he passed them but he stopped next to Neville.

"You'll want to watch this one professor," sneered Snape, looking down his nose at Neville."He can't do anything right." Neville was looking down, shuffling his feet as if he was trying to melt into the floor. Ebony's cheeks were red with anger as she glared at Snape. 'How dare he,' she thought, 'How fucking dare he.'

"I think that Neville is quite capable Severus," Professor Lupin said, raising his eyebrows, "In fact, he is going to help me with my demonstration." Neville's head snapped up in horror, his face flushed. Professor Lupin simply gave him an encouraging smile. Snape scoffed and with a swish of his robes, he left the room.

There was a large wardrobe behind where Professor Lupin was standing which gave a loud rattle and the class jumped.

"Nothing to fear," Professor Lupin said, "It's only a Boggart." The class, however, thought that this was something to fear and continued to stay well away from it "Boggarts like dark and enclosed spaces. This one was found yesterday, and I asked Professor Dumbledore to leave it to give you some practice." The wardrobe gave another rattle, even louder than the first which caused Neville to squeal and grab Ebony's hand. He then realised that he had done so and let go, his face going even redder.

"Calm down," Ebony said, putting her hand on his shoulder." Your head will explode if you go any redder." She gave him a smile which he returned, though his didn't quite reach his eyes, and then he continued to look at the wardrobe with a look of terror.

"Now," Professor Lupin continued."Who can tell me what a Boggart is?"

Hermione raised her hand.

"A Boggart is a shapeshifter," She said. "It takes the form of whatever a person fears the most."

"I couldn't have put it better myself," said Professor Lupin. "So when I let this Boggart out it will take the form of what each of us most fear. Now we already have an advantage. Harry, can you think of what it is?"

"There's a lot of us, so it won't know what form to take," Harry said.

"Exactly, always good to have company when dealing with a Boggart." Professor Lupin said. "The charm to repel a Boggart is quite simple, but you need to concentrate. The best way to beat a Boggart is to force it to assume a shape which you find amusing. To do this you will use the spell Riddikulus! You try."

"Riddikulus!" Chanted the class.

"Very good everyone. Now if Neville would like to join me at the front please." Professor Lupin held up his arm to beckon Neville to join him. Neville gulped and shuffled forward.

"Right, Neville. Tell us what frightens you most in the world." Professor Lupin was smiling but Neville still looked terrified. He moved his lips but nothing came out.

"Sorry didn't quite catch that."

Neville looked around as if begging for help. Ebony found his eyes and smiled, giving him a little thumbs up. He turned back to face Professor Lupin and mumbled, "Professor Snape."

The class laughed and Neville smiled painfully. Ebony wasn't laughing though. The thought that a teacher could be his worst fear made her sick. Sure, they all had teachers that were scary, Ebony thought Professor McGonagall could be terrifying when she was angry. But Snape was different. He was just nasty and horrid. Ebony felt her cheeks burn.

"Professor Snape. Ok..." Professor Lupin looked thoughtful." Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?"

Neville looked nervous. "Er...yes but I don't want it to turn into her."

"No, no," Professor Lupin was now smiling. "What kind of clothes does your grandmother wear?"

Neville thought for a moment, " A big hat with a vulture on it... Erm, a long dress...Usually green...Oh! And a red handbag."

"Very good," said Professor Lupin. "I want you to picture those clothes in your mind. Then when you cast the spell, the Boggart will be forced to wear them."Neville was grinning now, clearly already amused by the thought of Snape in his grandmother's clothes.

"Now back up everyone." The class shuffled a couple of steps backwards. " Once Neville has defeated this Boggart, I will call your names. When I do you will step forward and take your turn, so start thinking what your worst fear is and how you could make it funny."

Ebony knew exactly what her worst fear was and the thought of it being revealed to the class made her want to run and leave. There was no way she would be able to make it funny. 'But,' she thought, 'if Neville is brave enough then so am I.'

Neville had now gone pale, but he had rolled up his sleeves and held up his wand.

"You ready?" Professor Lupin asked. Neville nodded, his eyes focused on the wardrobe. "Okay, on three. One – two – three!"

The wardrobe burst open and out walked Professor Snape his eyes flashing at Neville. Neville's mouth was moving, but no sound came out. He took a deep breath and managed to squeak " Riddikulus." Suddenly Snape was swamped in a long green dress and large hat with a bird on top and a bright red handbag. Everyone roared with laughter and applause.

"Parvarti!" Professor Lupin shouted, and Parvarti swapped places with Neville. He walked towards Ebony with a grin on his face.

"Did you see? I did it!"

"I'm so proud of you!" Ebony beamed back at him. "Now breathe because I'm scared you may pass out." Neville laughed but took several deep breaths all the same.

The lesson continued with Parvarti's mummy losing its head, Seamus' banshee losing her voice, Dean's severed hand being caught in a mousetrap and Ron's spider losing its legs.

"Ebony" Professor Lupin called her name. Ebony stepped forward, wand ready. Her heart was in her throat, but she was determined to succeed. She watched as the boggart twisted and contorted in front of her. When it finally took shape, there were several gasps from around the room. Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange stood in front of their daughter.

Ebony swallowed and tried to say the spell but no sound came out. She still held out her wand but her arm was trembling. She couldn't breathe. Then they spoke.

"Filth. Blood traitor. Embarrassment. Shame of my flesh. Worthless." The words came out of their mouths like bullets, making Ebony flinch away from them. She stepped back and her knees buckled beneath her and she fell to the floor.

"Here!" Professor Lupin dived in front of her. Ebony looked up and watched as the Boggart changed into a misty, silvery orb. "Riddikulus!" He said lazily. "Neville, come finish it off!"

Neville cast a panicked glance at Ebony, who was still crumpled on the floor. She gave him a nod and tried to smile, she knew it came off as more of a grimace. She was breathing quickly, and her heart was pounding in her ears.

Neville stepped forward again, looking more determined than last time. Snape appeared again, his face sneering. "Riddikulus!" Neville shouted, and Snape was once again in the long dress and hat. Neville then let out a loud cry of laugher and the Boggart exploded.

Neville stopped for a moment before hurrying back over to Ebony. She had her head in her hands and was rocking back and forth. Professor Lupin was talking to the class, but she couldn't hear him against the pounding in her head. Neville began to rub her back and whispered softly in her ear. "It's okay. I got you. They can't hurt you." Ebony stopped rocking and looked up at him. "It's okay." He said again, smiling. She leant against his shoulder.

Then Lupin came over and crouched beside them. "Would you like to come and sit in my office for a bit?" He said softly. Ebony nodded. "Okay, what class do you have next?" Lupin's voice was calming.

"Transfiguration." She said, wiping her eyes. She hadn't even realised she was crying, she never cried.

"Neville, would you kindly tell Professor McGonagall where Ebony is, please?" Neville nodded. He gently helped Ebony to her feet. His touch was so gentle, so kind. Ebony didn't know that touch could feel like that. She brushed herself off and wiped her eyes again on her sleeve. Neville picked up her bag and then wrapped his arm around her and supported her as they walked to the door.

Once they reached the corridor Neville seemed reluctant to leave but Professor Lupin smiled and said: "I'll look after her, I promise." Neville gave her one last smile and then hurried off down the corridor.

Then turned around because he had gone the wrong way. Ebony gave a small giggle and waved as he went passed again.

**Authors Note: **

**Its been a while so here's a long chapter for you!**


	8. Third Year - 8

Professor Lupin's office was relatively empty, with one bookshelf, a desk and a couple of animal containers dotted around the place. It was cosy, though. The heat from the fireplace seemed to wrap its self around her, holding her in its warm embrace. Lupin indicated to the chair in front of his desk and Ebony fell onto it, her head was fuzzy and her knees felt as though they may give way any moment.

She didn't quite believe what had just happened. It was humiliating. Her whole year just saw the Boggart turn into her mum and dad. Kids shouldn't be scared of their parents. Yet here she was. She dreaded to think what was said after everyone had left. Whispers, rumours, questions… Fuck.

"Tea?" Lupin's voice was soft, and he looked at her, his eyes full of concern.

"Yes please." Ebony was picking at her nails. She was just waiting for him to ask her about the Boggart, about what it meant. Her home life was not something she talked about. Neville had asked a few times but the most that he knew was that she didn't get on with her parents and that bruises and cuts popped up now and again. He didn't know the half of it. Whenever he brought it up, she changed the subject. Ebony was adamant that she could handle it on her own. She didn't need pity.

A few moments later Lupin placed a steaming mug in front of her and then sat on the other side of the desk. Ebony wrapped her hands around the cup and lifted it to her mouth. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, feeling the steam fill her head. It was soothing. Professor Lupin wrapped his hands around his mug.

"How are you feeling?" He said, his smile small but comforting.

"I'm okay," Ebony said. Lupin put his tea down. He paused for a moment as if trying to find the right words to say.

"Ebony," he said looking her in the eyes. " I don't want to pry, and I don't want to make you talk about anything you don't want to but I feel the need to ask." He took a deep breath, still looking at her. "Is everything alright at home?". Ebony swallowed and looked down, running her fingers back and forth across her mug. Part of her thought she should tell him, just spill everything. Tell him how much she hated home and her parents. How much they hated her. The pain. Not just the beatings and punishments but the pain of being a stranger to the two people who were supposed to love her the most. Two people who either yelled at her or forgot that she existed altogether. Two people who made it very clear that she wasn't what they wanted. She wasn't a son, not the heir, her father wanted. Nor was she a pureblood fanatic like her mother. She didn't believe a word of what they both said about muggles and muggle-borns. Even less so once she had come to Hogwarts. The pain of knowing that no matter what she did, she was and always will be – a disappointment.

"Anything you say in this room stays in this room." Lupin was still looking at her, pity in his eyes. "Take as long as you need."

She'd handled it fine up till now, so why bother saying anything? Well not fine but she'd handled it. She didn't need sympathy. Didn't need it, didn't want it. At the same time, she couldn't just sit there and say nothing. Ebony took a deep breath.

"We just have never really seen eye to eye." She said. "On anything." Ebony was scared that if she said too much then she may never stop talking. "And they get angry sometimes, especially my mum." She took another sip of her tea, now slightly cold.

"When they're angry," Lupin spoke carefully, as though he was desperate not to say the wrong thing and upset her. He swallowed."Do they ever hurt you?" His eyes flickered over to her cheek, she moved her hair forward. Ebony just shrugged and said nothing. He wouldn't want to know everything. And she'd quite like to forget a lot of it.

Besides, her parents always said that it was for her own good. That they were teaching her a lesson. That any good parent would do the same. Of course, she still hated them with every fibre of her being but what could she do. She was powerless. If she told anyone, what then? The Lestranges were respected in high pureblood society. Anyone would be crazy to go up against them and even if they did they would most certainly lose.

Lupin seemed to read Ebony's silence and leaned back in his chair. "Well, I think that you have been through enough for today." He smiled at her sympathetically. "But sometimes, talking about things can help make them less scary. Somethings are too big for one person to carry on their shoulders." Ebony looked at him and couldn't help but think of Neville. It would make sense, to talk to him. It might even get him to open up as well. She knew that he brought up her issues as a way of forgetting his. Unfortunately, she was just not very good at the whole 'heart – to – heart' thing.

But then Ebony thought about the way he looked at her after holidays, the way his eyes lingered on bruises and cuts. The way he looked at her as if she was fragile, made of glass and would shatter at any moment. Of course, she knew that he cared, she thought maybe a little too much.

The bell rang for the end of the day and Ebony stood up and grabbed her bag. "Thank you, Professor." She said.

"Anytime, my door is always open." He grabbed a pile of papers and picked up his quill.

Ebony walked to the door but stopped with her hand on the doorknob. "Professor?" Lupin looked up. "Thank you," She said. "For standing up for Neville, I mean. A lot of people don't give him a chance. He's a lot smarter than even he gives himself credit for."

Professor Lupin grinned. "You've got a good friendship, you two. I'm glad."

"See you tomorrow, Professor."

…..

Remus watched as the door closed and then put his head in his hands. 'Poor kid.' He thought. 'Poor fucking kid.' He wasn't stupid, he knew that things were far worse than Ebony was letting on. He knew that Ebony was probably covered in more bruises than he could see. He could see that she didn't sleep much. He could see that she was worryingly small and skinny for her age. He saw the way she flinched at sudden movements. He'd seen this all before. With Sirius.

Remus paused for a moment then squeezed his eyes shut, trying to push him out of his head. He felt the usual pang in his chest, unsure what caused it. Guilt that he hadn't noticed sooner? Hadn't noticed that one of his closest friends was a spy? Anger that Sirius, his Sirius had done that? Grief for the friend he was so sure would be by his side forever? Grief for the friendship that got caught in the crossfire?

He decided he couldn't sit in his office alone any longer.

…

Remus entered the staff room and sunk into an armchair. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. Merlin, he was tired.

"Long day, Remus?" Minerva smirked as she sank into the chair beside him.

"It was eventful, to say the least," Remus said, smiling.

"Yes, I heard about the sixth year's lesson. An explosion in your first week is rather impressive." Minerva said.

"Still not quite sure how they managed it, Professor, they were supposed to be practising non-verbal shield charms," Remus said with a laugh.

Minerva coughed. "Call me Minerva, please Remus, you are no longer a student."

"My apologies Minerva but I hope you understand how strange it sounds."Minerva chuckled.

They both went quiet for a moment before she spoke again. "I also hear there was an incident with the third years." Remus sighed. "Is Ebony all right?"

"She gave us all quite a shock it has to be said," Remus replied. "She says she's fine though, think she was more a bit embarrassed than anything else." Minerva shook her head.

"If anything it just confirms my suspicions." She said. "She comes back from school holidays looking skinnier and paler than ever. Bags under her eyes, littered with bruises. It makes me sick, the thought that anyone could do that to a child, never mind their own child." Remus looked at his hands.

"What she did say, she said so casually, as if it is the most normal thing in the world." He gave an exasperated sigh. "It just kills me that there is nothing we can do. I tried to talk to her, but all I got was what we can already work out, I know for fact it's worse than she'll say."

Minerva sighed."Unfortunately, you're right, there's nothing we can do. Even if we somehow manage to get her to tell us the full story, it wouldn't make a difference. The Lestranges bribed and lied their way out of Azkaban for what they did to the Longbottoms so who's to say they wouldn't do it again. Then Ebony would be worse off than she was before."

Remus gave an exasperated sigh. Minerva placed a hand on his arm. "The best thing we can do," She said, "is to make sure Ebony knows she is safe here. That this is home." She then smiled and said, "I don't think we have too much to worry about while she's here, though, Longbottom clearly cares about her very much. He couldn't concentrate for the whole lesson," Remus smiled too, thinking of the way he had seemed so reluctant to leave his friend. Ebony was in good hands.

"Yes, and while I do find it endearing," Minerva continued, "I spent 10 minutes returning Mr Finnigan's eyebrows to their normal colour due to Neville's lack of concentration." Minerva sighed but she was smiling none the less. Remus laughed.


	9. Third Year - 9

Neville was waiting in the common room when Ebony arrived. He rushed over to her instantly. "How are you? What did Professor Lupin say? Do you wanna talk about it? We don't have to. Unless you want to," Neville fired question after question. He had clearly been worried after leaving her. Ebony couldn't help but smile though. Merlin, he was adorable when he was stressed.

"Merlin, let me breathe," she said and Neville stopped abruptly.

"Right, sorry, was just worried, I didn't get to talk to you and … well… yeah." Neville blushed and scratched the back of his neck.

"I appreciate your concern, I do," She said. "But maybe let's eat first?" Neville's stomach growled in agreement, Ebony snorted.

"Let's do that then." He plucked Trevor from a nearby table and slipped him into his pocket.

…

Ebony tried to ignore the strange looks she got from her fellow Gryffindors at dinner. Neville could tell she was uncomfortable and was trying to distract her with some facts about a new plant that Professor Sprout had got from Germany but Ebony wasn't really listening. She kept thinking about what Professor Lupin had said, about talking to someone. She wanted to tell Neville but the thought of his concerned look becoming a permanent occurrence made her feel sick. She loved that he cared but hated the way he looked at her as if one wrong move and she would explode. Besides, she didn't really want to go on about how shitty she thought her life was. Why would anyone want to sit and listen to her go on 'oh woe is me my life sucks.'? Neville probably had it worse anyway, at least her parents could speak to her. They didn't always want to but at least they could.

"Ebony?" Ebony looked up to see Neville staring her in the face.

"What?"

"You're not eating." Ebony looked down. It was true. She had merely been pushing her food around the plate and it had now formed some sort of sludge. She pushed it away from her.

"Turns out I'm not hungry." Neville gave her his 'I don't believe you' face. Merlin, she hated it, it made her feel guilty. "I'm not." Ebony, in turn, gave him her 'I'm serious face' which caused him to sigh and go back to feeding Trevor bits of mashed potato.

…

Ebony was still sat in the common room after the last group of sixth years retreated upstairs. Neville had gone to bed about an hour ago and Ebony said she was just going to finish her book. The truth was though, she didn't want to try and sleep, for she knew what dreams would fill her head and honestly, she'd had enough of her family for one day.

"You should be in bed." Ebony turned to see Neville stood in the doorway, arms crossed. He was trying to look angry but he was hard to take seriously in his oversized pyjamas and his hair sticking up in all directions. She shrugged and smiled guiltily.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Me neither." Neville came and curled up onto the sofa next to her. The two of them sat in silence, nothing but the sound of the fire filling the room. Then Neville spoke, " Do you want to talk about it?"

"About what?"

"Ebony, please." Ebony sighed. Of course, she knew exactly what he was talking about. She hoped he would just forget about it and move on. Apparently not.

"I don't. Not really."

"You can't just pretend your problems don't exist," he said. "You can't keep ignoring them." Ebony flinched at the hint of frustration in his tone. She sighed. He was right. Of course, he was right. And Professor Lupin, telling her to talk. Why did everyone have to be so helpful all the time?

"What do you want me to say?"She said. Neville thought for a moment.

" I want to know that you are okay. Because it kills me that there is so much going on in your head and your life that I can't help you with." Neville hesitated before reaching forward to take her hand. Ebony tensed up for a moment but didn't move away. She liked it, the weight of his hand on hers. It was reassuring, a way of saying 'I'm here, don't you forget that.' It was nice. Besides, Neville had gone as red as the walls of the common room and it was highly amusing.

"I'm as okay as I can be I guess," Ebony shrugged. "And besides, there's a whole lot of stuff going on with you so don't pretend you're fine either." Neville chuckled.

"I guess we are both a bit messed up," he said, grinning. "Your mum is bloody terrifying by the way." He was clearly trying to edge the conversation back over to the incident earlier.'Nice try' she thought.

"Yeah, tell me about it."

"How do you live with her?" Ebony looked away and didn't respond.

They sat there hand in hand for a while.

"I want to talk. I do," Ebony finally said, turning to meet Neville's eyes. "I just don't think I'm ready yet." Neville squeezed her hand.

"However long you need, I'll be here." They both smiled.

"You should've been in transfiguration," He said, his voice losing its air of seriousness. Ebony was relieved at the change of subject. " I turned Seamus' eyebrows green and then when he tried to change them back he scorched his fringe off. Again." Ebony burst out laughing.

"I would've loved to see McGonagall's face."

"Trust me, you wouldn't," Neville smirked

Ebony laughed. She felt the happiest she'd been in weeks. The simple joy of having someone appreciate your company was not found in the Lestrange house, it was big, dark and lonely. After having barely anyone to talk to for the whole summer Ebony never wanted to stop talking to him. She never wanted Neville to leave her side. Ever.


	10. Third Year - 10

Ebony had to deal with pitying looks and endless questions of 'are you alright?' for the next few weeks, all of which were driving her up the wall. Neville made an effort not to bring it up, she knew he was waiting until she was ready to talk. Problem was, she didn't think she ever would be.

Luckily though, the bruise on her face healed and soon everyone's minds turned to the first Hogsmeade weekend on Halloween.

...

"Professor, I'm sure I had it but-"

"It's alright Longbottom, your grandmother sent your permission slip on in advance." McGonagall said .

"Oh, thank Merlin." Said Neville with a sigh of relief.

"Here's mine, Professor." Ebony said as she handed McGonagall the slip of paper. Her and Neville left the classroom and started down the corridor to charms.

"I thought your parents were annoyed at you this summer." Neville said, looking confused

Ebony returned the look of confusion. "They were, probably still are. Why?"

"How'd you get one of them to sign your permission slip?"

"Oh, I didn't." Neville knit his brow. "I signed it myself. Turns out I'm quite good at forgery." Ebony grinned at Neville who seemed unsure whether to be bothered by the fact that his best friend had just committed fraud or impressed that she got it past Professor McGonagall so easily.

...

Hogsmeade looked like postcard. The small village was full of buildings with slate roofs and shuttered windows. It looked almost spooky though, coated in a thin layer of mist and fallen leaves and many of the shops and houses had carved pumpkins sat on their doorsteps. Very fitting for Halloween.

"It's so pretty!" Ebony said. Neville nodded in agreement, eyes wide with curiosity. They went straight to Honeydukes, as did half the school it seemed. She had never seen so many weird and wonderful sweets, she wanted to buy everything. She managed to settle for Exploding BonBons and a couple of liquorice wands. Neville chose a large red lollipop and some Fizzing WhizzBees. They were both going to be as high as kites tonight.

They left Honeydukes and had started towards the Three Broomsticks when Neville stopped and pointed across the square. "There's a dog." He said, grinning.

"Cool." Ebony replied. She had never been a huge fan of dogs since her great uncle's bloodhound had chased her at one of his garden parties when she was seven. She could still remember the drool dripping from it's mouth as it growled at her. Her father eventually came to her rescue and caught the beast. Her mother however found the whole incident highly amusing.

Unfortunately, Neville seemed dead keen on the animal and had started speed walking across the square. She sighed and followed suit.

The dog was black and shaggy and was digging through a bin. Ebony stopped quite a distance away from it but Neville went right up to say hello. He crouched by it and whistled, the dog stopped what it was doing and looked up. "Hello," he said, holding his fist out in front of him. The dog sniffed at it before giving it a lick. "You're a handsome boy aren't you?" He said, scratching his ears. The dog gave a short bark in agreement.

Neville looked over his shoulder. "You wanna come say hello?"

"I'm okay over here actually."

He gave her a quizzical look." Are you scared of dogs?"

Ebony chewed her lip. "Not exactly," she said, "I'm just not very fond of them"

Neville studied her for a moment before reaching his hand out to her. "Do you trust me?"

"Neville-"

"Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do." She said.

"Well then." He said smiling. He nodded towards his outstretched hand. Ebony gave a sigh of defeat and took it. He guided her down next to him, squeezing her hand as she came close to the dog. "Be nice to my friend." He said. The dog gave a small yip and wagged his tail. . Neville guided her hand down to the dogs head and curled it into a fist. "You gotta let him smell you." Ebony looked at him in panic but he gave her an encouraging smile. "I'm here, okay?" Ebony let out a shaky breath and gave him a small smile. Then she held out a trembling fist towards the dog. He sniffed it and then butted his head against it. "You can stroke him now." She cast another nervous glance at Neville before giving the dog's head a small stroke. She smiled. He was quite cute.

Ebony looked at Neville again, who was grinning away. "Can we go now?"

"Yeah, okay." He said , giving the dog a final scratch on the head. He helped Ebony to her feet and they started walking back towards the Three Broomsticks. Neville grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "I'm proud of you." Ebony blushed. "You faced your fear."

"Pity I couldn't do it before." She sighed.

Neville stopped abruptly. "Hey." He said, giving her a meaningful look. "That's completely different and you know it." Ebony looked at her feet. She didn't think it was that different. If she could approach a dog despite being terrified, why couldn't she have defeated a Boggart that wasn't even her real parents. "You're brave. Don't forget that." She gave a small snort.

"Sure."

"I mean it." He said sincerely. She smiled and rolled her eyes.

They turned to start walking again but before they could, Neville was shoved from behind and he fell to the ground with a loud yelp as his knees smacked against the cobbles. Ebony turned to see Crabbe and Goyle high-fiving and laughing their heads off. "Oh you're so bloody hilarious aren't you!" She yelled, feeling her cheeks flush with anger. "Fuck off will you!" The two boys grinned at each other and walked towards her.

"My, my Lestrange. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth." Crabbe said and both of them snickered. Ebony rolled her eyes and tried to walk over to where Neville was trying to get himself off the floor but she was grabbed by the wrist. Crabbe pulled her towards him. "Aww, look Goyle. She cares about the filthy bloodtraitor."

"Don't. Call. Him. That." She said through gritted teeth.

"Or what? What are you going to do about it? Because I'm sure mummy would love to hear about the filth her daughter hangs around with at school." Ebony swung her free arm at him but he ducked out of the way. He then twisted her arm behind her back causing her to cry out in pain.

"Not so tough now are we?" Goyle said in a mocking tone. The two boys roared with laughter

"Leave her alone." Crabbe turned to see Draco walking out of a nearby shop. Ebony yanked her wrist out of his grasp just as Neville returned to her side. All of them stared at Draco, confused by his intervention. "What?" He snapped, "She's not worth the effort, neither of them are. Filthy blood traitors." Draco sneered. He stalked off and the other two boys followed , not before Goyle spat at them. Ebony glared into the back of Draco"s head.

She hated him. Not all the time. He was alright when they weren't at school. They had a laugh together when their family had dinner and they were told to leave the room so that the 'grown-ups could talk.' But at school he was different. To put it lightly , he was a little shit. He claimed he had a reputation to uphold. Ebony didn't think that was much of an excuse.

Neville patted her arm. "Are you ok?"

"Fine. They're just dickheads." Ebony looked at him. His hand had started off on her arm in a comforting way but he was now somewhat clinging on for dear life. Her eyes trailed down to his knees. "You're bleeding!" She said, pointing at the rips in his trousers that were soaked in blood. Neville looked down too.

"Oh. Would you look at that. Mild inconvenience."

"Are you serious?"

"No. Actually it hurts quite a lot." He said, wobbling and tightening his grip on her arm. Ebony could see now that his grin was much more of a grimace and the colour had drained from his face.

"You need to sit down, you're very pale." Ebony helped him hobble over to a bench and sat him down. "I'm going to find Professor McGonagall, you wait here. Don't try and stand up and shout really loud if you need me." Neville began to laugh and Ebony frowned. "What?"

"Nothing," He said , still chuckling. "It's just nice to see you all stressed and concerned for once. That's usually my job." Ebony pouted at him but soon broke into a smile.

"I'll be right back you idiot." He stuck his tongue out at her.

...

"How're your knees?"

"They've been better."

They were sat in the hospital wing. Neville had both his knees wrapped up. Turns out he had managed to do a considerable amount of damage despite not falling that far. Madam Pomfrey had insisted he stay in overnight.

Ebony looked over to Madam Pomfrey's desk. She was giving her the polite 'its time for you to go now' look. Ebony sighed. "I think Madam Pomfrey wants me to leave." She said. Neville sighed too.

"Wish I didn't have to stay here, I'm missing the Halloween feast."

"I know but I tried my best to convince her." She replied, giving him a sympathetic smile. She stood up. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya."

Ebony made sure to smile at Madam Pomfrey in her way out.

...

The Halloween feast was as grand as ever but Ebony couldn't enjoy it. She was sat with Lavender and Parvarti but she wasn't really paying attention to their conversation. They weren't the same as Neville. She had tried to convince Madam Pomfrey to let Neville down to the feast but the woman was stubborn, the care of her patients came first and silly things like feasts didn't matter.

Ebony was glad when it was over. She just wanted to go to bed. It was draining trying to talk to people you didn't really know that well. Despite the fact that she had shared a dorm with the two girls for three years, their friendship hadn't really got past homework questions. Ebony knew very little about them so small talk topics ran out pretty quickly.

As they reached the portrait hole however, the crowd of students stopped moving.

"What's going on?" Lavender asked. Ebony shrugged and tried to see what was going on ahead.

"Let me through I'm head boy. Excuse me." Percy Weasley pushed through the crowd towards the portrait. "Someone go get Dumbledore." It was then the crowd went silent and a chill filled the air.

Ebony stood on her tiptoes and looked in between the heads of students. She gasped.

"What is it?" Lavender whispered.

"The fat lady's gone."

...

The Gryffindors had been sent down to sleep in the great hall while the teachers searched the school. Ebony grabbed a sleeping bag in the corner by herself and curled up.

Sirius Black. She had never quite believed the story that he was the dark lord's second in command. That was her mother and if anyone threatened that position then her mother would be the murderer. None of it made sense. She had never met Sirius but she knew he had been disowned and she usually thought that meant someone was a good person. Getting burned off the family tree meant you had common sense and didn't believe all the pureblood bullshit that everyone rambled on about constantly. What he had apparently done to the Potters baffled her, didn't add up. She could question it. But he had done this. He had come into the school and slashed the fat lady's portrait. That was a fact that couldn't be ignored. Something felt wrong. Very wrong.


	11. Third Year - 11

"How did Black even get in the castle?"

"Don't know."

"I bet he has help on the inside."

"Really Stephen?"

"Who in their right mind would help him?"

"Lestrange's parents were pretty close to You-Know-Who."

"Are you suggesting it's Ebony?"

"Always thought there's something off about her."

"Ebony though? Really?"

"She's weird. Probably at least half as loony as her mother."

"That's rich coming from you."

"Fuck off Emma."

"Guys, shut up."

Ebony gave the group of fourth-years a sideways glance, clenching her jaw. They fell silent and looked away, pretending to not have seen her. She had been dealing with shit like that all week. Of course, there were hundreds of rumours floating around about how Sirius Black had gotten into the castle - Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff was convinced that he could turn into a flowering shrub - but unfortunately, a handful of students had taken it upon themselves to place suspicion on her. People saw 'Lestrange' and instantly thought 'Death Eater.' It was frustrating, spending all her time at home trying to persuade her parents she wasn't a complete bloodtraitor and then having to persuade everyone at school that she wasn't a bloody Death Eater. She couldn't win.

She stormed back over to Neville and slammed the book she had found on the table, earning herself a burning stare from Madam Pince. She sat on the chair with a huff, glaring.

"Are you trying to burn a hole through the table with your eyes?" She shifted her gaze to Neville whose small grin vanished. "Seriously Eb, ignore them." She rolled her eyes and sighed heavily.

"Don't see you getting accused of helping a supposed murderer." She snapped.

"That's because people think I barely know my own way around the castle so what use would I be."

"Are they wrong though?" She said with a smirk.

"Hey!" Neville swatted at her with a roll of parchment and they both fell into fits of giggles, which they quickly tried to smother behind their hands. Madam Pince shoved her head around a bookcase and violently shushed them, which only caused them to laugh more. "Come on, I need a hand with this magical creatures essay. No clue what a damn honky-punk is." Ebony arched her eyebrow.

"I don't think that exists."

"What the hell have I been reading about then?" Neville shoved the open book in front of her. The page was ripped in half and stuck to the one behind it.

"Well, I don't know where the hell you're getting 'honky-punk' from. Half the page is about hippogriffs and the other is so covered in ink I can't tell."

"Yeah. That tends to happen to things in my bag."

"Did you not notice when you were, you know, reading it?" she said exasperated.

"Apparently not." He replied sheepishly.

"You worry me sometimes, you really do." She said rolling her eyes. She watched Neville lift a cracked ink pot out of his bag with a guilty look on his face.

"That explains it." Ebony snorted and shook her head. Merlin, he was useless sometimes. He then preceded to drop the already cracked pot on the floor and just stared at it in defeat.

"Really?" She said, raising her eyebrows. He stuck his tongue out at her and knelt down to clean the mess he had created.

"Have you done that defence essay yet?" Neville asked, wiping ink up with the end of his robes.

"The one Snape set?" Neville nodded. "No. How are we supposed to write an essay on a topic we haven't covered yet?"

"He's a dickhead that's how." He replied, a cold edge to his voice that Ebony rarely heard. "Bet he heard all about the Boggart lesson and is just being petty towards Professor Lupin. He's the best teacher we've ever had and Snape can't stand it, Hell he might have even poisoned him himself."

As much as she despised Snape, Ebony very much doubted the possibility that he had a hand in Lupin's illness. However she thought it better to not voice her opinion, Neville's vendetta against him meant she wouldn't be able to persuade him otherwise and it definitely wasn't worth an argument.

"When's it due?" She asked

"Tomorrow I think."

"Urgh motherfucking shit." She groaned, knocking her head onto the table.

"Where on earth did a nice girl like you learn such foul language?" Neville said, dramatically gasping.

"No idea whatsoever ." She said looking up, an innocent smile on her face.

"It's alright," he said. "How bout we just don't do it. You know, fuck Snape."

"Watch your profanity, Longbottom." She replied, grinning. "We'd get in a lot of trouble."

"I doubt that anyone is going to have done it besides, trouble is my middle name."

"Sure it is."

"Oh shut up and help will you." He held up his inky fingers.

"You could just use a cleaning charm."

"We both know that neither of us is any good at them."

Ebony sighed, "You're an actual idiot." She knelt beside him and ruffled his hair.

"Oi!" Neville wiped his finger down her cheek.

A wicked grin spread across her face. "Oh, you're going to regret that Neville."

**Author note: Not a very long chapter but I've been busy with school. However since its now closed due to the current circumstances i suddenly have a bunch of free time so expect more chapters soon !**

**Stay safe you amazing people :)**


	12. Third Year - 12

After the events of Halloween, the arrival of Christmas was a welcome distraction. Hogwarts had been decked out in its usual array of splendid decorations. Students were all looking forward to spending Christmas at home - the entire school was pretty much leaving due to the circumstances.

Ebony was not excited, however. She sat in the window in the common room, the quiet buzz of chatter in her ears. Her hand gripped a letter tightly. She sighed. She didn't want to go home but as always, a stern reminder from her father stopped her from signing up to stay over the holidays. The thought of the endless parties and dinners made her feel sick. Family gatherings were not her favourite, spending an evening stuck in a room full of arseholes was in fact Ebony's idea of a personal hell. It was tiring pretending to be someone she wasn't but it was what had to be done to stay on her parent's good side. She just wasn't sure how much longer she could do it for. How much longer she could go on before it broke her completely.

"You alright?" His voice brought her out from her thoughts. Ebony drew her knees up to her chest to give Neville space to sit.

"Always alright me." She said with a smile. Neville rolled his eyes.

"Sure, " He said, eyes trailing to the letter in her hand. "Gotta go home for Christmas?"

"Unfortunately."

"Any chance you could-"

"Nope." She sighed. "I'll be fine." Neville didn't look like he believed her, she didn't blame him. He smiled sadly at her before shaking it off and giving her a wide grin.

"Fancy a game of Gobstones?"

"Why not."

...

When the train pulled into Kings cross Ebony thought she was going to be sick. It was always the same. Being at Hogwarts, away from everything gave her a feeling of euphoria that she couldn't quite explain, almost like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders. Then the holidays came and brought it all crashing down.

Neville was gathering his things but Ebony stayed rooted to her seat, trying to melt into it. Perhaps if she stayed long enough the train would simply go back to Hogwarts.

"You coming?" He looked at her with a smile that was just a bit too wide. She sighed and dragged herself up, forcing her legs to move. She swung her rucksack over her shoulder, almost taking Neville out as she did so. "You trying to kill me?" He said, looking offended. The corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

They squeezed their way along the corridor but before they reached the door Neville stopped her. "I know they don't let you write," He looked her straight in the eyes. He did the same thing every year, "but if you need anything, you know how to find me."

"Thanks," she smiled, "but I'll be alright, I promise." Ebony wasn't sure if she was trying to convince him or herself. Either way, it didn't work. "Merry Christmas Neville." She gave him one last look before slipping out of the train and almost crashing into a blur of blonde.

"You took your time."

Ebony rolled her eyes at her cousin but Draco didn't see, having already slipped back into whatever conversation he was having with his friends as they wandered down the platform. She looked back to see Neville's grandmother fussing over him. Ebony suppressed a giggle as she watched her spit on a handkerchief to wipe dirt off his chin, despite Neville's disgusted protests.

Her smile quickly vanished when she met the glare of Lucius Malfoy who merely sighed at her before ushering his wife and son towards the station Floo network.

"And Merry fucking Christmas to me." She muttered before following

...

He watched her walk down the platform, tagging along behind Draco. He felt so helpless. He wanted nothing more than to grab her and hold her. Tell her everything would be okay, that he'd never let anyone lay another finger on her ever again. Show her that people could be kind, that the world didn't have to be made of darkness. Tell her she didn't have to go through this. He desperately wanted to save the fire inside her, the fire that made him feel so alive when he was with her. Her laugh, the light of her eyes. He wanted to save her. He wanted her to let him in. Because maybe that would all be enough to save them both.

But he couldn't do any of it, instead he had to watch her walk away with her head down, her spirit already disappearing inside her. It broke his heart. He turned away.

...

Ebony leant against the wall and stared at the chandelier above the ballroom. It was ugly, looked as if it was made of cobwebs and just didn't fit the weird gothic vibe of the rest of the house. Clearly, Dolohov was not one for interior design.

"You look like you're having the time of your life." Draco appeared beside her with drinks in hand. He offered her the glass. She took a drink, using all her self control not to just down it. Being tipsy would not end well, she needed to keep her guard up and not say anything she shouldn't.

"Finally escaped from your mother then?" She said. Draco let out a huge sigh.

"I love her but that woman drives me insane. Once she starts talking she doesn't stop." Ebony snickered. "I see you slipped away fairly quickly."

"My mother prefers it when I'm not around, that way she can pretend that I don't exist. That is, until I say something outrageous in her vicinity, like 'Muggles are just people' or 'What's wrong with being in Gryffindor?' then she doesn't leave me alone." Ebony tightened her grip on the glass in her hand.

"Speaking from experience?"

"Maybe." She smiled guiltily. Silence hung between them as they stared into the room filled with their relatives, listening to the sound of chatter and polite laughter. It was quite a sight, some of the fanciest dress robes to be seen, majority of them ridiculously hideous. Ebony didn't understand how anyone could keep track of who was related to who , and how, when there were that many people. "You know some people spend Christmas Day in their house and only have a couple of friends and family round."

"We can't do what the commoners do my dear." He replied in a posh accent which made Ebony choke on her drink and then burp. He raised his eyebrows. "Very ladylike." She stuck middle finger up at him but smiled nonetheless.

"I've missed you Draco." Her cousin turned to her looking confused.

"We go to the same school, you see me all the time."

Ebony sighed. "I mean I've missed the real you. You know, when you're not being an arsehole." Draco looked down at his feet.

"You know why I do that."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it. Also, you don't have to be such a dick."

"Don't hold back, keep the insults coming." Ebony batted his arm. "It's not my fault Longbottom's an easy target. What the hell do you see in him anyway?"

"I'm not having this conversation with you." She replied, looking away.

"Well, I think you would prefer it to what's about to happen." Ebony furrowed her brow and turned to look where Draco was. Sure enough, her mother was coming in her direction, deep in conversation with some tight faced woman and a boy who seemed just older than Ebony.

"Kill me please." she groaned. She quickly drained her glass, resisting the urge to let out a belch just as they arrived.

"This is my daughter, Ebony," Bellatrix said, a false sweetness to her voice that made Ebony feel sick. "Ebony, this is Alexin Rowle." The boy let go of his mother's arm and reached for Ebony's hand, which he kissed. Ebony wanted to smack him across the face.

"Might I just say how beautiful you look on this fine evening Ebony."

'No you may not, get the fuck away from me,' was what she really wanted to say. Her mother was smiling at her through gritted teeth. "Why thank you." She replied smiling sweetly, thinking that maybe the ugly chandelier would be a great place to hang herself from. She could see Draco hiding a smirk behind his glass out of the corner of her eye. "You look quite ... nice yourself." She stammered, trying not to blush. In all honesty, Alexin's dress robes were hideous. They were a mouldy shade of green with lace around the edge that resembled the colour of sick. Alexin's mother cleared her throat.

"Well it was lovely to finally meet you, Ebony, your mother told us such nice things about you." Ebony wanted to laugh. Her mother? Saying nice things? That would be first.

She smiled again and gave a small wave as Alexin led his mother across the room. He face fell into a scowl as soon as they walked away.

"Well?" Her mother demanded.

"Well what?"

"Good match don't you think?"

Ebony's mouth dropped open. "Match? I'm thirteen for crying out loud, I'm not looking for a bloody husband."

Bellatrix grabbed her wrist and twisted it causing her to wince. "You'll do as I say if you know what's good for you. Besides, it's never to early to start planning." She pulled Ebony towards her and whispered in her ear. "And watch your fucking language."

And with that she dropped her grip and strode away, her heels echoing against the floor.

"Another drink?" Draco's voice made her jump, she'd forgotten he was there. She flopped back against the wall, rubbing her wrist.

"Do you even have to ask?"

...

Bellatrix wasn't at the breakfast table when Ebony came downstairs. Her father seemed to be in a foul mood, given the way he glared at the daily prophet. She sat silent for the entirety of the meal, unsure whether to risk asking about her mother's whereabouts. In the end, she gave in.

"Mother not joining us?" Ebony asked in a forced light tone.

"She's gone out," Rodolphus grunted from behind the paper. Ebony raised her parents rarely went out, even less so separately.

"Where's she gone?" She knew she was chancing it. Her father slammed to paper down on the table, making her jump.

"Does it concern you?"

"Er...no." Her answer sounded more like a question.

"Then you don't need to know." Her father snarled. "Get out of my sight, I'm very busy today and I'd rather not be interrupted."

"Yeah, busy being an arse." She muttered under her breath as she got up from the table.

"What was that?"

"Nothing sir."

Her father rolled his eyes and went back to his paper.

...

The house had been silent all day. Ebony had no idea what her father was doing but after her chat with him at breakfast, she thought it best that she just stay out of his way. She lay on her bed with a book on her lap, watching the sky turn pink as the sun set behind the trees.

One week. That was all. One more week and she'd be back to Hogwarts. She just needed to hold on.

It was then that she heard him thumping up the stairs. What the fuck did he want? Ebony tossed her book aside and got up to open the door but her father got there first.

Rodolphus looked a mess. His shirt cuffs and collar were undone and his waistcoat was hanging open. She could smell the alcohol from where she was standing. "Its all your fault." His voice was bitter and sharp. Ebony just stared at him.

"I don't.."

"It's your fault she hates me." He spat, his gaze burning into her. "She's never loved me but we got along fine, we made it work just the two of us." He staggered towards her, still glaring. Ebony backed up against the wall. "Then...then you came along and ruined everything." His breath reeked of firewhiskey. "You came along and suddenly we were supposed to be a proper family." He laughed. "Your dear mother didn't like that." She tensed as he reached out and put his hand on her cheek. "Everyone thought we would never have children. When you arrived people thought that maybe you weren't ours. But no. You've got her beauty." He dropped his hand. "At least that's something."

He stumbled and fell onto her bed. Ebony had seen both her parents drunk but she had never seen her father this bad. She remained rooted to her spot against the wall. She couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. Was she really the cause of her parents' miserable marriage?. She couldn't picture them ever getting along. They had screaming matches almost every night, snapped at one another constantly. She didn't think you could find two people that got along worse than they did.

"Who the hell is Enid Blyton?"

She snapped her head towards her father who was holding her book in his hands.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Fuck.

Of all the books she could've left lying around, it had to be a muggle one. It was called 'The Famous Five' and Hermione had given it to her after she saw her reading it and asked what it was about. It was fascinating, a group of children going on grand adventures. Hermione didn't even get annoyed when she constantly asked about the different muggle things. Ebony had been so careful to keep it hidden away in her trunk up till now. To be fair she hadn't expected her father to burst into her room like that.

"Well?" Her father snapped.

"Er.. she's...she's an author." Ebony stammered. She thought about just making a run for it and finding a place to hide until he had cooled off but she felt stuck to the wall.

"I can bloody well see that you smart ass." Rodolphus snarled, discarding the book and rising from the bed. "It's just, Blyton. Not a well respected wizarding author, not one I've heard of anyway."

Ebony watched with wide eyes as her father unbuckled his belt and slid it out of his trousers. He towered above her and smacked it against his hand. "So," he said, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "Are you going to try and convince me otherwise or will you admit that you brought muggle filth into my house?" Ebony's whole body was trembling. She wasn't sure what to say. "WELL!?" Her father roared, smacking the belt against the wall next to her which made her squeal.

"It's muggle." She mumbled, not daring to meet her father's eyes.

The next thing she knew the wind was knocked out of her and she was doubled over in pain. The belt had struck her stomach, causing her skin to sting. Rodolphus grabbed his daughter by the chin and forced her to look in his eyes. "Listen here." Another blow, this time across her shins. His gaze stayed fixed on her. She looked at him with watery eyes. "I don't know what you are playing at." He struck her shins again. Ebony whimpered and tried to pull herself out of his grip but he held on tight. "You're a Lestrange." His words sprayed spit on her face. "It's time you started acting like it."

He threw her to the floor. She crumpled into a ball as he landed blow after blow, the leather burned her back as it hit. She cried out for it to stop but he paid no attention. By the time he was done, Ebony was curled up on her side, silent tears rolling down her face.

"Pathetic." He spat, giving her a sharp kick to the ribs and then stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

Ebony didn't move. She stared numbly at the door, her breath shaky. Her father had never been so violent. Her mother was the psychopath, the one with the violent temper, Rodolphus preferred to just watch.

She imagined what Neville would be doing now. Maybe talking to Trevor or reading a new book that he got for Christmas under the covers. Maybe her was thinking of her, like she was of him. Maybe he was worrying as usual. Her mouth curled into a small smile.

"I'm okay." She breathed. "You're with me."


	13. Third Year - 13

...

Ebony awoke the next morning to the sun streaming across the room. It took her a minute to realise that she was still on the floor. She rolled onto her back, regretting the movement instantly as sharp, stinging pains shot through her body. She groaned. Her father was a right dickhead.

She tried to sit up, her body numb from the night spent on the floor. She used her bed as support to pull herself upright and clung onto it as she regained the feeling in her arms and legs. After a minute of clinging to the bed frame, she shuffled over to the door and went to pull it open but found it locked. "The fuck?" She muttered to herself. She tried it again but to no avail.

Bastard.

She shuffled back across to her bed and curled up on top of the covers. It wasn't the first time she'd been locked in her room and usually, it only lasted a couple of days so Ebony decided to simply wait it out rather than anger her father further by pounding on the door.

She spent the rest of the day lying on her bed, watching the daylight slip away. Her stomach growled, she'd eaten nothing all day. Luckily, she frequently got thirsty in the night so had a goblet of water on her nightstand so at least that was something.

She wondered if her mother had returned from wherever she'd disappeared to, the house was quiet so she presumed not. It was strange, her mother disappearing out of the blue. Her parents didn't leave the house a whole lot, any events or meetings were more often than not held at home. When they did go out, they did so together so as to not leave the other in the unpleasant company of their child. Wherever her mother had disappeared to, Rodolphus was not happy about it.

...

After what she reckoned had been about three days, the house exploded with sound. Her mother was home then. Bored of pacing around her room, Ebony knelt beside the door to try and hear what was being said in the shouting match below.

"You don't own me!"

"Forgive me for wanting to know where my wife had disappeared to for half a bloody week!"

"It's none of your business where I went!"

"As your husband, I'd say it is most certainly my business!"

"If I had it my way I wouldn't be married to such a pathetic lump of a man!"

"You think I wanted this? No one in their right mind would want to marry a woman so batshit crazy!"

Ebony jumped as there were several loud crashes and then a man screaming in pain. Then a thud and a woman screamed.

She crawled quickly away from the door and tucked herself in the corner with her knees to her chest and her hands over her head. She scrunched her eyes shut, wishing it would all just stop. She wished that there was no more screaming or yelling. No more fighting. No more locked doors. No more pain. She wished for a house that wasn't dark and lonely. She wished for a mum who smiled and a dad who told jokes. She wished that there was another way, that this wasn't the life that she was stuck with, that maybe, just maybe, she could be something more. Something good.

Her stomach gave a loud gurgle. More importantly, she wished for some fucking pancakes.

...

It soon became clear that she wasn't getting out any time soon. Ebony wasn't quite sure how long it had been since she ate but her stomach cramped and her mouth was dry - the large goblet beside her bed had lasted her 2 days. She was almost pleased to see her father when he entered her room carrying a plate and a glass. He set them down on the dresser by the door. She sat up on the edge of her bed waiting for him to leave so that she could satisfy her hunger.

"Learned your lesson yet?"

"That's what you're calling this?" Ebony knew it wasn't a good idea to speak back to her father but she was bored, hungry and fed up. Her father just glared. "You were such a mess I'm surprised you even remember what happened."

His fist had collided with her face before she even registered what she'd said. The force knocked her off the bed and her head met the floor with a loud thud.

"I thought you at least had enough intelligence to know when to keep your mouth shut. Apparently not."

"I get that from my mother." She looked up at him with a smile, ignoring the fact that her ears were ringing and the room was spinning. He glared back.

"You just don't know when to quit do you?"

"Apparently not."

Another punch and it all went black.

...

Ebony woke sometime later with a pounding in her head that made her feel as though she might puke. There was dried blood on her nose. It took her a minute to remember why the hell she was on the floor. Then it came back to her, a couple of snarky remarks mixed with her father's short temper. She was a fucking idiot. Thirteen years of the same shit and she seemingly had not learned a thing. Maybe if she just kept her mouth shut then she wouldn't be in such a mess to start with.

She really didn't want to move but she soon caught sight of the plate a cup sat on top of her dresser. Merlin she was starving. She hauled herself up, clinging to the bed frame as spots danced across her vision.

The plate held nothing more than one measly slice of bread but she didn't care and wolfed it down regardless, stopping only for a moment to enjoy the feeling of having food in her stomach. She then downed the water in one gulp, closing her eyes with pleasure as the liquid soothed her dry throat. It was only once she'd finished that she realised she should've rationed it, after all her parents were completely unpredictable when it came to remembering that they even had a child. It was too late for that and besides, she figured she could last another day and then she'd be on the train back to school.

She stumbled back over to the bed, trying desperately not to throw up. She clambered under the covers and decided to try and sleep off her headache.

...

"Oi."

Ebony opened her eyes - or more specifically eye, her left one seemed to want to remain closed - to see her mother standing in the doorway. "Nice to see you again mother," She croaked.

"Lovely to see you too, you little shit." Her mother replied, a smirk on her lips. Ebony almost smiled, it was nearly somewhat affectionate. "Train leaves in 3 hours, you can floo to the station on your own." She said turned to leave. She stopped for a moment however and turned towards her daughter. "And stay out of your father's way. He's in a worse mood than normal ."

"Yes, ma'am," Ebony mumbled as her mother left. She smiled to herself. She rather liked the idea of going to the station on her own, it meant no unnecessary hanging around watching Narcissa fuss endlessly over her son.

However, it wasn't until she tried to stand up that Ebony realised how much of a challenge getting to the station was going to be. As she stood up the room swayed beneath her feet and she relied on the bed for support. Bile rose in her throat. Well, this was going to be fun.

...

Ebony stumbled along the platform, the noise around her making her head pound. She found the first open compartment that she could and collapsed onto the seat. She'd made it. At long last.

Her vision was slipping in and out of focus and her head felt too heavy for her neck. She thought she might throw up, despite her stomach being empty. Ebony just curled up into a ball and buried her head in her arms, her body was exhausted and she just wanted everything to stop buzzing.

...

Someone was gently shaking her shoulder. Her eyes flickered open and she was met with the kind smile of Neville Longbottom. "Tired?" He asked, with a grin. "You slept the whole way."

"Didn't think I was that sleepy." She returned his smile and sat up, stretching. His expression changed almost most instantly, his grin replaced with a look of horror.

"What happened ?" He seemed to blurt it out unintentionally. Ebony shot him a confused look before remembering that she couldn't really see out of her left eye. She hadn't actually had a chance to look at herself before she left, she was more focused on not passing out.

"Is it that bad?" She said wincing.

"It's pretty bad Eb. In fact, you look...awful."

Ebony gave a dry laugh. "Thanks."

"I think you should see Madam Pomfrey."

"Well if you help me up then I will, alright?" She didn't usually bother going to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey never asked too many questions but she had a look on her face that made Ebony's stomach tie itself in knots. The truth was though, she felt like utter shit. Every inch of her was aching, burning or somewhere in between.

Neville held out his hand and helped pull her to her feet. She grabbed his arm tightly as once again the room began to spin and her vision went spotty.

"Ebony?" Neville's voice sounded like a distant echo that was swirling around her. Her knees were threatening to give way.

"'M fine." Was all she managed to utter before collapsing.

**Author note: I'd first like to thank everyone for sticking with this story, it honestly means a lot. Hope you are all safe and healthy. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. **

**Keep smiling everyone xx**


	14. Third Year - 14

**Author note: I couldve split this into two chapters but i didnt so enjoy this nice long one.**

**As always, reviews are appreciated. :)**

**stay safe out there you beautiful people xx**

She looked like a ghost. Her skin was deathly pale in comparison to the black curls that framed her face. It made the bruise on her eye violently dark in contrast to the flesh around it. Her lips were dry and chapped. Her whole face looked hollow as if the life had been sucked out of her body,the gentle rise and fall of her chest was the only indication that she was in fact, still alive.

Neville curled his fingers around each other. He felt awful. There he was, enjoying his Christmas holidays when all along she'd been in pain. She had been suffering and he had done nothing. He took her hand which lay limply on her stomach. "Just let me help you," he whispered, "for once. Please." His eyes brimmed with tears but he blinked them back. No. He had to be strong. He needed to be strong for her.

She was already asleep when he'd found her on the train and he thought nothing of it. Ebony had been curled up in a ball with her head buried in her arms and she looked so peaceful that he didn't want to disturb her. So he didn't. For the train journey, he just read his new 'A-Z of Wizarding Plants (UK Edition)' that his uncle had got him for Christmas and quietly chatted to Trevor, realising that if Ebony had woken up she would have thought that he was insane.

When she finally did wake up Neville had never been more scared. For starters, her left eye was purple and swollen and when she stood up he saw all the colour drain from her face. Then she collapsed and he freaked out. He always liked to imagine that he would be the one to stay calm in a stressful situation but truth be told when Ebony passed out in his arms he almost wet himself because What the bloody hell was he supposed to do?

In the end, he just laid her back down on the seat and shouted for a prefect who ended up having to help Neville more than Ebony. He decided that he would not tell Ebony this and just have her believe that he handled the whole thing reasonably well.

Madam Pomfrey strode over to the bed, her harsh expression a little softer than usual. "Curfew's in 15 minutes so I think you better go." Neville's eyes lingered on Ebony as her face twitched in her sleep. Madam Pomfrey gave a quiet sigh and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You can come back and see her in the morning." She squeezed his shoulder and then walked back over to her office.

Neville stood up and gently place Ebony's hand back onto her stomach. He gave her one last look before reluctantly walking away.

...

Ebony's eyes flickered open and for a moment she didn't know where she was. It was dark except for the soft glow of a candle next to her and a couple of streaks of sun coming through the windows from the dawn. She shoved herself into a sitting position - ignoring the quiet pounding in her head- and looked around, squinting in the low light. Only when a figure crossed the room in her direction did she realise that she was in the hospital wing.

"How are you feeling?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Tired."

"Well you've been out for a good few hours and the number of potions in your system will be making you feel drowsy."

"Right."

Madam Pomfrey took a bottle out from the bedside table. "Here drink this and I will sort out some breakfast."

Ebony did as she was told and watched as Madam Pomfrey walked away. She didn't even remember how she'd got here. She remembered getting on the train but not getting off. She frowned, was Neville there? She had a brief recollection of seeing his smile when she woke up but she wasn't sure if she was making it up or not.

Madam Pomfrey came back over and placed a plate of buttered toast on her lap. "Finish that and then I'll give you the next round of potions."

The smell of the toast made her stomach churn and suddenly the thought of eating made Ebony feel rather nauseous. "I'm not hungry.".

"I don't care, your body needs food whether you like it or not so you can eat it willingly or I will force it on you." Ebony obediently took a bite of toast, looking up at Madam Pomfrey with a scared smile who gave her a satisfied grin. "Eat it slowly, that way you won't bring it back up."

"Noted." She replied, nibbling at the crust.

"Now," Madam Pomfrey said, crossing her arms across her chest. "Do you have any ideas on why you passed out on the train?"

"Not really." She lied and, to her surprise, Madam Pomfrey didn't push. Instead, she just gave her a sympathetic smile and walked away.

...

When Neville came up the next morning after quickly wolfing down some cereal he was surprised to see an empty plate of crumbs next to Ebony's bed.

"She woke up?" He asked as Madam Pomfrey made up the next bed over.

"Briefly, very early this morning. Managed to get some food in her before the next round of potions knocked her out." She said not looking up from her task. "If you come back after dinner she should be awake again."

"Thanks."

He looked back over to his friend's sleeping form, curled up into a ball under the covers. He'd never quite realised how small she was, taking up less than half the bed. Ebony rolled over in her sleep pulling the sheets with her. Neville simply smiled and reached over to fix them when he stopped. Her pyjama shirt had ridden halfway up her back and all he could see were harsh red lines all across her pale skin. They had clearly faded with time but they were there, no doubt about it. This wasn't right. Anger burned in his chest but he swallowed it and fixed Ebony's blankets. He muttered something to Madam Pomfrey and fled into the corridor, his hands curling into fists.

It wasn't fair. He booted a suit of armour and swore when it, unsurprisingly, hurt. The thought that someone could want to hurt his best friend made his body swell with anger. She was so kind, so funny and, to him, one of the most incredible people he knew. She could make him smile without fail, drag him out of any foul mood.

The image of her in the hospital wing flashed in his mind. That wasn't her. Ebony had a smile that made the corners of her eyes wrinkle up. Ebony had eyes that twinkled. The girl in that bed wasn't her. It couldn't be. She looked too broken.

He knew that her life at home sucked, she always moaned about having to go home but this? He had never seen her so bad. Neville knew better though. He knew that she hid things from him all the time, Ebony didn't like to make a big deal of things because 'you'll just worry.' He gave the suit of armour another kick and, to his dismay, it came tumbling down with a spectacular crash. He sighed and knelt down to pick it up. Why'd it always have to be him?.

"Having a little trouble are we?" He turned to see Professor Lupin sticking his head out of his classroom door behind him. Neville tried to speak but just ended up wildly gesturing at the fallen armour, his face flushing. Lupin gave a soft chuckle and wandered over to the mess. "Allow me." He raised his wand and within moments the suit of armour was standing back where it started, good as new.

Neville got up and dusted himself off. "Thank you, Professor." He mumbled, looking down and scratching his nose.

"Is something bothering you?" Lupin asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Er... I guess I don't know, no, yes?."

"Well how about we start by going to my office and discussing how a suit of armour ended up all over the floor?" Lupin said with a small smile.

"Yeah, that's um.. yeah ok." He mumbled before shuffling after Professor Lupin.

...

Remus looked at the boy across from him and for a moment his chest ached. He hadn't really looked at Neville properly but now he could see how much he looked like Alice, from his eyes to his smile. His mannerisms however were more similar to Frank's, the way he chewed on his bottom lip and twiddled his thumbs. But Remus took a deep breath and straightened up, now was not the time for reminiscing about friends he had lost. This kid needed his help.

"So how exactly did that armour happen to find itself spread across the corridor?"

"Erm... I...I sort of kicked it." Neville mumbled, scratching the back of his neck and not looking him in the eyes. "I'd just been in the hospital wing to see Ebony and...well...I don't know..."

"I understand that it can be frustrating to see someone you care about in pain and feel helpless." Neville looked up then and Remus gave him a smile. "However I feel that there are possibly better ways to deal with that frustration than beating up antiques." Neville gave a small laugh but tried to hide it with a cough clearly thinking now was not the time to be laughing. Remus' smile twitched. Frank used to do that.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Just don't do it again alright?" He said.

"Yes, sir."

"Good," Remus replied, leaning back in his chair, "while you're here, is there anything I can help you with?" Neville sat and thought for a moment before finally coming out with,

"Why do bad things happen to good people?"

'Straight into the big stuff then' he thought. Remus smiled and shook his head."I may be a Professor," he said, "but there are some things that even I don't know the answer to."

"Ebony," Neville started quietly, "she doesn't deserve any of this."

"I don't think anyone deserves what's she's been through." Remus ignored the pang in his chest that seemed to come out of nowhere.

"What am I supposed to do about it? I want to help, I need, I need to help her. I want to fix things."

"I think talking to her is a good place to start."

" I try to," he said, frustrated, "but she either doesn't tell me anything or just changes the subject. I don't want to upset her but at the same time I'm her friend, she should be able to tell me stuff like this."

"Getting people to open up can be difficult, " he said. "Unfortunately, the best thing you can do is keep trying, you'll get somewhere eventually."

"Okay." Neville replied, looking a little disheartened.

"As for 'fixing' this, few things in life have a simple solution."

"I just don't understand," he said, "if they treat her like that, why doesn't she just leave?" Remus took a deep breath. The conversation was all too familiar. He leaned forward and clasped his hands together on the table.

"Maybe she will someday, maybe she won't. Families are complicated things Neville, they are her parents no matter how unpleasant they may be. They're all she knows, all she has."

"She's got me," Neville uttered almost silently. Remus smiled just as the bell rang. He stood up.

"Well I think you should go, Professor Snape is not a fan of latecomers I'd imagine." Neville seemed to almost physically shudder at the thought of his next class. He was just heading out the door when Remus called after him, "Oh and Neville?" The boy turned around. "It's going to be okay."

And with a final grin, he was gone.

...

She was sitting up when he came after dinner and he couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, you." She said weakly as he pulled up a chair.

"How you feeling?"

"Not as bad as I look honestly."

"You scared the shit out of me, passing out like that."

"You make it sound like I did it on purpose." They both laughed. "So how were your holidays, didn't get a chance to ask you on the train." Neville hesitated, it felt wrong sharing his stories when she had clearly had a horrid time. She poked his elbow. "Come on, they've got to have been better than mine."

Neville gave an uneasy laugh and started rambling on about the new book he got and how his Gran had finally managed to cook Christmas dinner without setting fire to something. She was in fits of giggles when he said that his youngest cousin had knitted Trevor a jumper.

"He looks so angry when he has it on."

"That toad has been through hell, poor thing," she said, still laughing.

Neville was twiddling his thumbs. He was trying to build up the courage to ask about her holidays. He knew he had to but he hated the face she always made when he brought it up and he really didn't want to dampen her good mood.

"Ebony, " he said gently, "You know you can trust me right?"

"Go on then." She sighed, her face falling.

"What?" Ebony just rolled her eyes.

"You know what. I can tell you're going to ask what happened to me. Just get it over with."

The air between them suddenly felt incredibly tense. Ebony just stared at the ceiling, picking at her fingers. Neville wasn't sure what to do. He was torn between wanting, needing to know what happened and not wanting to upset her. In the end, he decided just to go for it.

"What actually happened to your face?" Neville winced a little, it came out a lot harsher than he intended. Ebony ran her fingers through her hair and took a deep breath.

"My father happened."

"He..you mean.."

"He punched me? Yes." She said quietly.

"Why? Why would he do that?"

"I was being a smart ass." Neville just stared at her in shock. "I'd been stuck in my room for ages and I was bored so when he came in I made some snarky remarks. He didn't like that."

"That's not a reason to hit someone!"

"Well feel free to tell him that." Ebony sighed, clearly not a fan of the conversation already.

"Wait, why were you stuck in your room?"

"My father found the muggle book Hermione lent me and he got angry so he locked me in my room."

"He did all this over a book.?"

"To be fair he was very drunk."

"That doesn't make it ok!" Ebony just shrugged. "What about your back?" She turned and looked at him in alarm.

"What...how..."

"I saw when you were asleep." She looked away. "He did that too. Didn't he?" Ebony shrugged again.

"I've had worse."

Neville shook his head in frustration. Why couldn't she just speak to him? Why couldn't she see that all he wanted to do was help?

"Why are you so casual about this? Why can't you see that this isn't normal?"

"So it's my fault?" She scoffed.

"No! Of course not!"

"That's what it sounded like."

"Well maybe if you stopped feeling sorry for yourself for five bloody minutes-" The words slipped out before Neville could stop them. She looked at him, stunned. "No, wait I didn't mean..." His voice died off as he watched something inside Ebony snap.

"You ever stop to think that this is exactly why I don't tell anyone? That I'm scared that's exactly what someone would say? Or maybe I think that no one would care, after all, it's not like everyone hasn't seen me come to school with black eyes and cuts and they've done absolutely nothing." Her face was bright red with anger and a single tear rolled down her face. "You were the one person who wasn't supposed to act like this, or so I hoped."

"Ebony-"

"And of course I know this isn't normal but it's my life and has been for thirteen years so why should I kick up a fuss? I've lasted this long handling it on my own so I don't see any point in changing that now." She looked away from him. "I thought you were my friend. I thought you were my best friend and I trusted you." Ebony was chewing on her bottom lip. "Guess I was wrong." She said quietly before curling up and pulling the sheets over her head.

Her words cut through his heart like a knife. Neville just sat there, stunned, unsure of what to do, cursing himself for losing his temper. He tried to say 'I'm sorry' but no sound came from his mouth. Madam Pomfrey had appeared at the foot of the bed, looking between them both.

"I think you should go now." She said to him, her voice cold.

...

Seamus and Dean were having a pillow fight when Neville got back to the dorm. Dean tossed him a pillow as he walked in but he ignored it and went straight to his bed and closed the curtains.

He was an idiot. He was a fucking idiot. Shouting at your friend who is clearly feeling like utter shit and finally opened up a little? Nice one Longbottom. _'Well maybe if you stopped feeling sorry for yourself for five bloody minutes',_ the words were still ringing in his ears. Neville groaned and buried his face in his pillow.

"Hey Neville, what's up?"

Neville lifted his head to see Seamus kneeling by his bed, sticking his face through the curtains.

"Me and Ebony had a fight." A pillow came flying through the air and smacked Seamus in the back of the head. He grabbed it and flung it back towards Dean

"Not now mate, Neville's having girl trouble."

"That's not what this is at all." He grumbled. He really wasn't in the mood for teasing.

"Come on, we all know you have a crush on Ebony," Dean said with a cheeky smile, coming over to join them.

"I don't and that is really not what we should be focusing on right now," Neville said, exasperated. He propped his head up with his elbows and recounted the argument in the hospital wing. It sounded even worse the second time round.

"Fucking hell mate." Seamus said finally. " That's quite a mess you've got yourself into."

"Tell me about it." Neville shoved his face back into his pillow.

"I think, " Dean suggested, " That the only way you can fix this is by talking to her."

"Yeah, " Seamus agreed. "But maybe don't, you know, yell at her this time?."

"Thanks, Why didn't I think of that?" Neville said, grabbing the pillow from under his head and swatting Seamus in the face.

...

_The breeze was cool as Ebony made her way down to the greenhouse. Neville was tending to some sort of vine-like plant and looked up with a smile as she came in._

_"Hi." She said with a wave._

_"Hello, bloodtraitor." He replied with a grin. Ebony's blood ran cold and she looked at him in shock._

_"Wh-what did you ju-just say?" She stammered._

_"I said," Neville's expression darkened as he spoke. "You're a pathetic, worthless filthy bloodtraitor." Ebony flinched away from his words but when she turned back it was her fathers face looking back at her._

_"It's all your fault. It's all your fault. It's all-"_

_"Stop it!" She screamed, covering her ears. She tried to back away but vines had grown up through the floor and were twisting their way around her ankles and up her legs. She tore at them with her nails but it just made them thicker. As they slithered up her body they turned black and sprouted buckles. All the while her father's voice boomed around her._

_"It's all your fault. It's all your fault. It's all your fault"_

_Her father's face morphed into her mother's. "Oh look, it's the family disappointment." Her voice was shrill and sliced through the air. "Never thought a child of mine would grow up to be such an embarrassment."_

_Ebony was still covering her ears. "Stop it." She was begging now. "Please..."_

_"How about I teach you a little lesson sweetheart?"_

_No. No. No._

_"Please mother, don't..."_

_"Crucio!"_

Ebony sat up with a gasp, drenched in sweat, panting. She looked around in panic only to find that she was still in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey was sat on the side of her bed with the end of her wand lit and hand on her shoulder. "It was just a dream."

Ebony screwed up her face and rubbed her eyes, wincing when she forgot about her bruise. It wasn't real. She took a deep breath. It wasn't real.

"Here," Madam Pomfrey held out a small vial.

"What is it?"

"Dreamless draught, " she said, "It'll help you get some sleep. Your body is weak, it needs rest."

Ebony took the bottle and drank. It tasted like sour milk. Madam Pomfrey tucked her back in.

As she sank back against the pillows a wave of coolness washed over her head. Everything suddenly felt empty. Like all the weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. She felt as though she was floating, like on a cloud or in the middle of the ocean.

...

Neville spent the rest of the following day with a knot in his stomach. He knew he had to go and see Ebony and make things right but what if she didn't want to see him? What if she never wanted to speak to him again? She was the only proper friend he had, she understood him in a way that no one else did. While other people laughed at and mocked his forgetfulness, Ebony always helped him find what he had lost and remember things ( of course she always laughed at him first but that went without saying.)

He finally decided to go after dinner when he wouldn't be interrupted by needing to go to class.

When he arrived at the hospital wing he spent five minutes pacing outside the door before building up the courage to go in.

His nerves weren't helped when he was met with the harsh glare of Madam Pomfrey. She raised her eyebrows at him and jerked her head towards Ebony's bed. "I'd rather you didn't upset her again, she had a rough night." She said sternly before striding off down the ward.

Neville swallowed before edging his way over to his friend, if he could even still call her that. She was sat up in bed reading and didn't seem to notice him come over. He cleared his throat. "Hi."

"Hello." She said but didn't look up. Neville bit his lip and sat in the chair by her bed.

"Look, I'm sorry, I was an arsehole. I got frustrated and I took it out on you." He was trying hard not to sound like he was pleading. He had to stay calm and collected, at least that was what Seamus had told him to do. "I really am just trying to help. Honestly." He said earnestly. "I just don't really know what I'm doing."

Ebony gave a small sigh and closed her book. "Well, I guess I'm sorry too." She turned to look at him. "I may have overreacted."

"I don't think you did." He said. She shouldn't be apologising. She hadn't done anything. "I said some pretty shitty things." A sad smile played on her lips.

"It's just, talking about it, I was scared and I got upset and... well I guess I'm just not used to it"

"What?"

"People caring about me. Because I don't think anyone ever really has." Neville just stared at her, the words ringing in his ears._ I don't think anyone ever really has_. The next thing he knew, he was slipping onto the bed next to her and wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders.

"I care," he whispered, "I care so much it scares me." She tensed up initially, clearly unsure of how to react to the situation. Slowly but surely however she relaxed and melted into him and it wasn't long until he felt her grip tighten on his shirt, clinging onto him for dear life.

"Thank you." It was so quiet, more of a breath than actual speech, he almost missed it. His eyes began to water but this time he didn't try and stop the tears from flowing down his face. It killed him that she was grateful for something so simple. When they eventually broke apart Ebony was beaming, her eyes shining. "I care about you too, you know." She said, wiping his face with her sleeve.

"I'd bloody hope so, someone's got to help me not forget my own name." He said, giving a watery laugh. She snorted. "On the whole, I think we're both a bit shit at the whole sharing our feelings thing." Ebony laughed again and Neville couldn't help but feel his heart flutter in his chest. He decided it was his favourite sound in the whole world.

"You can say that again."

...


	15. Third Year - 15

**Sorry this chapter took a while, quarantine is giving me major writers block!**

**Any way, another long for you so hope you enjoy - should probably mention that some sections of this are from Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban.**

**As always, let me know what you think!**

**Also special thank you to Green-Silver-Ravenclaw who always leaves such lovely reviews (it won't let me reply to them but they honestly make my day!)**

**Stay safe you amazing humans xx**

Ebony was relieved once she got out of the hospital wing after a few days, she'd had enough of being stuck in the same room for days on end.

Thankfully her black eye had disappeared thanks to Madam Pomfrey's help so she was able to spin the story that she simply had the flu without too much suspicion which saved her from weeks of whispers and unwanted questions and stares.

She had one hell of a time catching up with her work but most of the teachers just seemed happy that she was back in class. Apart from Snape, who gave her detention for not handing in an essay that was due from the holidays. She'd wanted to say that she spent her Christmas trying not to die from starvation but she kept her mouth shut.

Neville, on the other hand, came to her defence and said that he was being unfair. Snape couldn't care less and merely stated that he could join her that night.

...

"You are to make this floor spotless, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir." Ebony said and Neville nodded meekly.

"What was that Longbottom?"

"Yes, sir." He mumbled, not looking up.

"Hand over your wands." Both of them reluctantly obliged. Ebony hated not having her wand, it made her feel powerless and vulnerable. "I will return in a while, I have more important things than watching lazy imbeciles clean floors." With a swish of his robes, he left the room.

"What a prick," Ebony said, grabbing one of the buckets of water.

"Agreed. All we did was not hand in one essay." Neville added, doing the same. "I just don't understand why he hates me some much."

"I don't know either, you're not even that bad at potions."

"Thanks but I think you may be exaggerating, we are both horrendous at potions."

"Oh come on, we only make things explode every other day." They both burst out laughing before getting onto their hands and knees to start scrubbing the floor.

...

"Somethings got to be done about it Minerva, poor girl's skin and bone"

"I've spoken to Albus but unfortunately there is nothing we can do."

"This is ridiculous!"

"Trust me, Poppy, I find it just as infuriating."

"Good evening," Remus said as he made his way over to where the two older witches were sitting, "Everything alright?"

"Ebony."

"Ah." He sighed as he sat in a nearby chair. He had heard that she merely had a bad case of the flu but from the tone of voice, Remus figured that it was definitely something else. "What's happened now?"

"That girl passed out on the train and turned up on my ward half-starved that's what!" Minerva placed a comforting hand on Poppy's arm.

"Is there nothing Albus can do?"

Minerva took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. "Unfortunately no, Ebony has told us nothing directly so we're working on assumptions. Until we have some concrete facts about the situation we can do nothing."

"What about Longbottom? Have you tried asking him?" Poppy asked.

"No," Remus said with a smile, " I doubt we'd get much out of him if she's told him anything I highly doubt he would betray her trust."

"We've just got to keep supporting her how we can," Minerva said and Poppy gave a small huff. "And you really shouldn't be worrying yourself right now Remus, you've got enough on your plate."

Remus blushed slightly and scratched the back of his neck. "Speaking of which, I really must find Severus." He rose from his seat. He hated people bringing up his condition, even if it was meant in a caring way. It made him feel weak like he was a burden.

Just then, as if on cue Snape walked into the staff room and began to make himself a drink. "Ahh Severus, I was meaning to come and find you," Remus said with a smile, wandering over to his colleague.

"Yes, your potion is sat waiting in my classroom." Snape did not return the smile.

"You're finishing rather late this evening Severus," Minerva remarked, looking over her glasses.

"Detention," he said. "Which I must get back to."

"I'll come with you then," Remus said and he bid goodnight to Minerva before following Snape out the door.

"Who's in detention then?" He asked

"Longbottom and Lestrange," Snape replied, keeping his eyes straight ahead. He never had been one for small talk. Remus smiled a little.

"What have those two done now?"

"Lestrange thought she just wouldn't bother to do the holiday homework I set and Longbottom felt the need to be extremely disruptive about it."

"I see." Remus in-fact did not see. Any decent human being would see that Ebony had not been well and would perhaps cut her some slack. Apparently, Snape wasn't in the mood to be decent. As for Neville, Remus very much doubted that Neville had been 'disruptive' and was more likely just standing up for his friend.

...

They'd got just under half of the classroom done before Snape came striding in an hour later with Professor Lupin at his heels. "Is that all you've done?"

"It's only been an hour." She protested.

"5 points from Gryffindor. Don't talk back Lestrange." Ebony flinched and Lupin raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

She huffed and shot a glance at Neville who sighed too. Her back ached and she really wanted to go to bed. She stood up to move a chair out the way and was hit by a sudden head rush. She gripped the back of the chair for support, scrunching her eyes up as the world seemed to spin.

"You alright Ebony?" Lupin asked. Snape just glared.

"Yeah just felt a bit dizzy."

"Should you really be doing this so soon after getting out of the hospital wing?" Lupin seemed to be asking Snape more than her. Ebony just shrugged. She watched as Snape glowered at Lupin - who she could've sworn was wearing a slight smirk- before muttering, "That be enough, for now, both of you get out of my sight."

Ebony and Neville both looked at him in surprise, unsure of whether or not he was serious.

"Did you not hear me? Go, before I change my mind." He snapped, dumping their wands on the desk. Ebony wasn't sure if she actually saw Professor Lupin give them a wink or if she was just imagining it.

Both of them wasted no more time and muttered 'thank you, Professor,' and made a speedy exit. They burst into giggles as they got out into the corridor.

"Professor Lupin is my favourite teacher ever," Neville said as they made their way down the corridor.

"Don't let Professor Sprout hear that." She said, giving him a light shove with her elbow. He just laughed.

"You are okay though right?"

"Merlin, yes I'm fine," she sighed with a smile. "I just got up too quickly."

...

Neville was sat on the sofa flicking through his herbology textbook but his eyes were merely flying over the page.

"Hey, you alright?" She said, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him.

"I'm fine."

"I think you'll find that's my line." She said with a smirk. He looked up and managed to give her half a smile before looking away again. Her face fell "Seriously Neville, what's wrong?"

He frowned, fiddling with his wand. " 's nothing," he mumbled, "it's stupid."

"I'm sure it's not." He looked up at her, twirling his wand in his hair. "Also don't do that, remember what happened last time." He gave a small chuckle and obediently put his wand down.

"The half-bald look was really not my thing."

"It was awful." She agreed. "So come on," she gave him a gentle nudge. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Is this really what I do to you all the time?"

"Yes," she said, smiling. "Now stop avoiding the question."

He inhaled deeply. "It's just...it's my mum and dad's wedding anniversary today."

"Oh," Ebony wasn't quite sure what she was expecting him to say but it wasn't that. "How long they been married for?"

"Fifteen years."

"Wow, congrats to them." She said still looking at him slightly puzzled. "Why's that got you down in the dumps though?" He shrugged.

"I don't know," he mumbled, raking his fingers through his hair. "I guess I was just wondering whether or not...you know...they know."

"Oh."

"Like they should be celebrating right now but instead they're just...barely there." His voice cracked and Ebony hesitantly took his hands in hers.

"I'm sure they know," she said. Honestly, she had no idea about the ins and outs of spell damage but that wasn't what was important right now. "If they love each other I sure that somewhere, deep down, a part of them knows."

"Really?" Neville's eyes were watering. She gave him a grin.

"I think so," she squeezed his hand. Neville just sat there smiling with tears running down his cheeks. Ebony had no idea what to do. "I'm really not good at this you know." He laughed and wiped his face with his sleeve.

"Yeah, I'd noticed." She tried to scowl but it quickly turned into a smile as Trevor hopped from Neville's lap onto his shoulder.

"I think I'll leave the touchy-feely stuff to him." She said as he licked Neville's chin.

"Good idea." He replied, giving the toad a little pat on the head.

...

Ebony awoke to the sound of loud chatter. The other girls in the dorm were sat up with the ends of their wands lit. She looked at Hermione, who's eyes were noticeably red and puffy. She sighed, Ron was being an absolute prick.

"What's going on?" She asked, rubbing her eyes. Lavender just shrugged. Parvarti went over and stuck her head out the door.

"Everyone's going downstairs." She said. They all looked at each other before shrugging and climbing out of bed.

Ebony pulled on her dressing gown and stumbled downstairs into the common room. No one seemed to have a clue what was going on and there was a lot of chatter coming from the third year boys. She shoved her way towards where Neville was standing with the others from his dorm. All of them, particularly Ron, looked extremely pale. "What's going on?" She asked.

But before he could answer her, Percy came barging downstairs. "Everyone back upstairs!" He said, ushering people towards the dorms.

"Perce - Sirius Black," Ron said faintly. "In our dormitory, with a knife! Woke me up!"

The room suddenly went very still. Neville clung onto Ebony's arm. She looked at him. "Really?" She whispered. He shrugged, "Ron woke up screaming, surprised you didn't hear it".

"Now really, enough's enough" Professor McGonagall stormed into the room, a look of fury on her face. Clearly, she thought that they were continuing the quidditch celebration party from earlier. "I'm delighted that Gryffindor won the match but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better from you."

"I certainly didn't authorise this, Professor!" Percy said. "I was just telling them all to go back to bed! My brother Ron had a nightmare-"

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME HOLDING A KNIFE!"

Professor McGonagall just stared at him. "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he have got through the portrait hole?"

"Ask him!" Ron pointed a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's portrait. McGonagall glared out him and went out into the corridor. The entire common room seemed to be holding its breath. Ebony placed a hand on where Neville was still clinging to her arm.

"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"

"Certainly good lady!" He cried.

The air suddenly became very tense as a stunned silence swept across the room.

"You - you did?" McGonagall said in disbelief. "But - but the password!"

"He had 'em!" Said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through to the common room, her face white as a sheet. Ebony felt Neville tense up next to her. She leant in and whispered "Hey, it's okay," but Neville continued to stare ahead, trembling.

"Which person,' Professor McGonagall said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

That's when the penny dropped and Ebony watched as Neville let go of her arm and raised his hand. She felt her heart sink.

"Go to bed. All of you," Professor McGonagall ordered coldly. As the rest of Gryffindor house dispersed up the stairs she caught Neville. "Longbottom, I'll deal with you later."

"Professor it wasn't-" Ebony started.

"That's enough Lestrange." She snapped and Ebony winced.

They both just stood and watched as she turned on her heel and left.

...

The Howler arrived at breakfast two days later. It was brought by a huge barn owl which landed right in Neville's cereal. Ebony watched the colour drain from his face.

"Run for it, Neville," Ron advised. He shot a panicked look at Ebony and she nodded. Ebony then watched as Neville seized the envelope and ran from the hall, accompanied by roaring laughter from the Slytherin table.

He didn't make it very far though, the entrance hall was suddenly full of the booming voice of his grandmother yelling that he had brought shame on the family. Her harsh words sent a familiar shudder through Ebony's body that made her skin crawl.

She discarded her toast and ran after him.

...

Ebony found him leaning against the wall next to the common room entrance. McGonagall said that Neville was no longer allowed to know the password, he simply had to wait for someone to let him in. Ebony, of course, thought that this was a pile of shit and told him them anyway, the fact that he usually forgot straight after was beside the point.

"Hey," she said, noticing that his eyes seemed rather red. "That was rough."

"Deserved it," he muttered, picking at the skin around his thumbs. "She's right, brought shame to my whole family."

"No, you haven't." Neville merely laughed. "It was an innocent mistake, Neville, anyone could've lost that piece of paper."

"I was the only one dumb enough to write them down in the first place."

"Everyone was getting confused with the passwords changing all the time if anything that was a pretty smart idea." She gave him a small smile. "Don't beat yourself up about it."

"Just shut up alright!" Ebony just stood stunned with her mouth slightly open as Neville threw his hands up in frustration. "Why can't you just accept that I am fucking useless? Everyone else does!"

"I just," she said quietly, looking down. "I was just trying to make you feel better."

"Well stop it alright!" She had never seen him like this and it gave her a pit in her stomach. She looked at his face, red with watering eyes. "My 'innocent mistake' could've got Ron killed!" His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed. "You don't know what it's like to always be the one to blame! As soon as something goes wrong it's always me. Even when it isn't my fault people always think, 'Oh what's Neville done now?'. Even Gran does it. You don't understand how it feels to be this useless."

"I do actually." He stared at her, his expression slowly softening. She smiled weakly. "I get it." She blinked as tears stung her eyes. "It fucking sucks."

Tears were flowing freely down Neville's face and Ebony felt one or two trickle down her own cheeks. They both just stood there, staring, neither of them quite sure what to do. Then Neville took a step towards her, his arms open a little. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his middle while he clung to her neck.

"Why do we both have to be so messed up?" He mumbled into her neck and she gave a half-laugh, half sob.

"Life would be pretty boring if we weren't." He lifted his head, a watery smile on his face. "I don't erm.. I don't think you're useless, just so you know." She stammered, feeling herself blushing.

Neville wrapped his arms around her again, clinging on tighter than before.

"I don't think you are either." He said softly and she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

...

"What do you want to do tomorrow then?" Ebony asked, flopping down onto the sofa next to Neville which caused Trevor to give a surprised croak and hide in the crook of Neville's elbow.

"Are you not going to Hogsmeade?" He asked, frowning.

"What, and leave you here alone?" She said, "Why would I do that?"

Neville smiled a little. "But I thought you needed a new quill."

It was true, Ebony's had broken when she dropped it in the middle of a busy corridor and it had got trampled on multiple times. No amount of Reparo's could fix it.

"I mean yes-"

"Then go"

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" She asked.

"No," he rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at his lap. " I just feel bad that you aren't going because of me."

She sighed and gave him a defeated smile. "Fine. I will go and get myself a new quill if it bothers you that much." She thought for a moment. "Then I will visit Honeydukes on my way back and pick up some chocolate and we can spend the rest of the day playing exploding snap and chess. How bout that?"

Neville's face spread into a wide grin and he flung his arm around her neck. He had become very physically affectionate after their argument in the Hospital wing and honestly, she loved it. It made her feel warm and bubbly inside. She almost craved it. "I think you're the best friend ever!"

She laughed, " I wouldn't go that far."

"Well, I did." He said, leaning his head on her shoulder. She let out a long breath

It was strange, the thought that one person could make you feel so at ease by simple being near you but here he was. Neville, the most unexpected person she thought she would ever call her friend. She leant her head on top of his. This was nice, she thought, she could happily stay here forever.

"Take some food though." She lifted her head and arched an eyebrow at him.

"It's only Hogsmeade, I think I'll survive the trip."

"No for the dog, if you see him. I think he's a stray and he was really skinny."

"If you think I'm going anywhere near that bloody mutt you can think again."

"He's not that bad."

"He could easily tear my foot off!"

He turned his head to look at her. "Why are you so scared of dogs?"

"My great uncle used to have two bloodhounds. They were massive and had big teeth and one time when I was seven, they chased me around the garden." She shuddered. "I can still picture the drool coming out of their mouths"

Neville wrapped his arms around her elbow. "Take some food anyway and if you see him, just throw it in his direction and back away."

"I'll think about it." She said. "If he does bite me though-"

"Permission to yell at me."

"I was going to suggest taking Trevor into protective custody but yelling works.

...

She was just in her way back from Honeydukes when she saw a long tail disappear around the corner. She sighed and followed after it. She found the dog digging in a bush on the outskirts of the village. What the hell should she do now?

Ebony cleared her throat. "Um...hi?" The dog's head snapped up and he barked at her, wagging his tail. She took a couple of steps back, already regretting engaging with the animal. She slowly reached into her pocket and as she did so the dog sat down, cocking his head to the side. Ebony tossed the couple of pieces of bread that she had collected at breakfast towards the large black dog. He yipped happily and wolfed them down before looking up at her wagging his tail.

"Sorry, that's all I got." She said, holding her hands up and backing away.

"Oi, Lestrange!"

Ebony's hands curled into fists and she sighed. She really wasn't in the mood.

"Replaced Longbottom with a dog now have we?" Draco scoffed as he strutted over with Crabbe and Goyle in tow. "Suppose, that mutt is probably smarter than him." The three boys roared with laughter.

"Thought I wasn't worth the effort," She retorted, " you know, Bloodtraitor and all that."

"Changed our minds," Goyle said, cracking his knuckles, " you're pretty easy pickings."

"Yeah." Crabbe chimed in, "Bring up mummy and daddy and you start shaking like a leaf."

Ebony felt her cheeks burn, "I'm not scared of them." She said through gritted teeth.

"Really?" Goyle said, raising his eyebrows "I think your Boggart would beg to differ."

Ebony clenched her fists and was about to take a step towards him but before she could there was a deep growl from behind her. She turned to see the large dog baring its teeth and edging skulking towards Goyle who just laughed.

"Oooo setting your dog on us now," he said in mocking tone, "oh I'm so scared." All three of them laughed but the smiles were quickly wiped off their faces when the dog let out and loud bark and pounced at them.

She couldn't help but grin as they tore off down the street screaming. Serves them right, she thought. A few moments later the dog returned and sat in front of her and she almost thought it was smiling. "Thank you for that," she said, fully aware that she was talking to a dog like it was a person. "Maybe you aren't so bad after all."

She watched as he bounced off towards the small hill a little way from the village and then turned back to her expectantly. "What?" She said, raising her eyebrows. The dog walking a little more and then turned around again. "You want me to follow you?" He gave a yip and wagged his tail. Ebony shrugged. "Sure, you did help me I suppose." He gave another bark and ran ahead, turning back every so often to check she was following.

Ebony was following a dog. She was following a dog that she was still scared may try and rip her leg off any minute. She had no idea why something in her gut just told her to. It wasn't until they reached the entrance to a cave that she realised quite how ridiculous it was. "And this is how I die." She muttered and the dog laughed. The dog fucking laughed.

Ebony froze and watched him disappear inside. Part of her was telling her how stupid it was and that she should turn back. However, that part was difficult to hear over that Gryffindor part of her brain that was saying that she should totally just follow a bloody dog into a cave where she would most certainly be murdered.

"Lumos." Her breath became shaky as she stepped inside. It was full of dead rats and other bones. The dog was nowhere in sight. "This was a waste of time." She muttered and turned to leave when she saw a shift in the shadows.

"I wouldn't speak so soon dear cousin." A croaky voice echoed though the darkness.

Her heart stopped.


	16. Third Year - 16

**Author note:**

**Apologies for the cliffhanger in the last chapter - that was quite mean!**

** A slightly shorter chapter this time but I promise a new one should be coming fairly soon, the way things worked out I felt that the next part needed its own chapter.**

**As usual, hope you enjoy and feel free to review and let me know what you think.**

**Hope you are all well and having a lovely day/night xx**

Ebony turned slowly on her heel, her grip tightening on the bag strap hanging across her body. She came face to face with the gaunt-faced man as he slid out of the shadows. His skin was grey and seemed to hang off his skeleton as though it were a shirt that was too big for him. He had matted black hair that hung limply on his shoulders.

.

"You're ..."

"Sirius Black, yep." He said nonchalantly. Ebony couldn't quite believe what was happening. Her heart was hammering in her ears. She pulled her wand from her pocket, pointing the tip at his throat. He lazily put his hands up in surrender. "Hey hey, no need to get violent."

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't blast you into a million pieces right now."

"For starters, I don't think you know how to do that."

"Try me." She said, trying to keep her voice steady. Ebony really hoped he didn't push any more because he was right, she had absolutely no idea how to do that.

"Fair enough," he took a step closer. She continued to glare at him, her arm steady. "If I told you I'm not the murderer that everyone thinks I am, would that be a good enough reason?."

"No!" Ebony could quite believe what she was hearing, "because that's obviously bullshit."

He laughed. "Come on, trust me. One bloodtraitor to another."

She furrowed her brow. "What makes you think you can call me that?"

"A Lestrange in Gryffindor." He indicated the red and gold scarf around her neck. Heat rose in her cheeks "I bet Bella was thrilled." He said.

"How do you know she's my mother?"

"I guessed."A satisfied smile spread across his lips. "You look awfully similar, aside from the fact that you lack a certain murderous fire in your eyes." Ebony snickered. What the hell was she doing, standing and laughing with SIRIUS BLACK? But there was something nagging at her, in the back of her head. She always thought there was something off about the whole thing and now here he was, in the flesh, telling her he didn't do it.

"You know, we're not too different you and I ."

"Aside from, you know, the whole MURDERER THING!" She kept her wand pointed firmly at his throat

"Calm down cousin," he said. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"YOU TRIED TO KILL RON!"

"I didn't"

"What the fuck were you fucking doing then?!."

"It's a long story, I'm afraid you're just going to have to trust me."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

He laughed. " I see you get your language from your dear mother." He crossed his arms across his chest and leant against the cave wall, clearly not feeling the slightest bit threatened. "How is the old bitch?"

"Still a bitch."

"No change there then."

"So I just have to trust you do I?"

Sirius smirked and raised his eyebrows. "If you truly thought I was a murderer you would've left the second I revealed myself. The fact that you are still standing here talking to me suggests you think otherwise."

Ebony opened her mouth but closed it again. He was right, she could've run out the second she got there but she didn't. She had stayed to listen to him because a part of her wanted him to be innocent, wanted to believe that there was someone in her family that didn't turn out to be a complete psycho.

"Where'd the dog go?" Sirius grinned again and the next thing she knew the large black dog was stood where he had been. She gave an involuntary gasp. "Impressive." She said a small smile on her lips. Sirius returned to his human form and gave a low bow which made her giggle.

"Why thank you." He said with a wink. She laughed again shaking her head.

"So it's true," she said, "Sirius Black is one for dramatics."

"Indeed the legends are true." He said, still grinning. "How rude of me, I have yet to ask your name."

"Ebony." She said still trying to figure out why the fuck she seemed to be having a civilised conversation with a criminal on the run."Sorry but I'm still not sure why you got me to follow you here."

"I told you," he said. "I figured that a Lestrange in Gryffindor was someone I could persuade not to turn me in on the spot and honestly I just wanted someone to talk to, it's been a while."

"Really?" He just shrugged. "You're not going to try and get me to help you or anything?"

"I don't want to get you into trouble, I expect you get enough of that at home."

"What are you...?"

"Heard that boy say something about a Boggart turning into mummy and daddy"

"So what if it did?" She said shrugging, heat rising in her cheeks.

"How bad is it?" He asked, suddenly sounding a lot more serious.

Ebony laughed properly then, a small roar of laughter that made her eyes water. "Are you kidding me? I don't talk to my best friend about this sort of thing," she said, wiping her eyes, " what makes you think I'm going have this conversation with an escaped criminal in a cave?"

"Ooo she's stubborn." He replied with a smirk.

"I think it's more to do with the fact I don't know you."

"Oh I'm hurt," he said, clutching his chest. She rolled her eyes.

"You said you know my parents," he nodded. "Use your imagination."

"Not great then?."

"You can say that again." She said, smiling. She finally lowered her wand. "Well, it's been strange talking to you but I don't want to keep Neville waiting."

"Was he the Longbottom they were talking about?"

She frowned. "Yes."

"I thought the name rang a bell." She continued to stare at him. "Frank and Alice were my friends before your darling mother and father got to them." She looked at her feet. She often forgot what they'd actually done to Neville's parents. Honestly, it still surprised her that he wanted to even be near her. "Funny pair you two, does mumsie know about him? Or her prat of a husband perhaps?"

"What do you think?" She said, crossing her arms.

"You playing a dangerous game dear cousin."

"Thank you I am well aware of that," Sirius smirked again. "And for the record, my father is far more bearable than my mother, trust me."

"I can see that being the case, Bella always was a bit off the wall even as a child," he said with a snort. "How come Neville didn't come with you then?"

"It was his list of passwords you stole. He's in massive trouble ."

"Give him my apologies."

" I won't but thanks anyway." She heard Sirius laugh as she turned away. She made to leave but stopped and faced him again. "By the way."

"What?"

"Don't make me regret trusting you."

"You have my word." He said, placing his hand on his heart. She turned to leave again.

"Oh and Sirius?"

"Hmm?"

"I always thought there was something off about the whole thing. I always thought maybe you didn't do it.".

She watched as something washed over his face but she couldn't quite work out what it was.

"Thank you, Ebony." He said, his voice suddenly much softer, genuine. "Be careful out there kiddo."

She gave him a nod and left.

...

Ebony stumbled out of the cave in somewhat of a daze, her heart still very much pounding in her chest. She let out a shaky breath that she didn't know she was holding. What the hell had just happed? She had stood and had a chat with Sirius Back. She had laughed with Sirius Black. The notion of it was so ridiculous it was almost enough to make her laugh out loud.

He was rather like she imagined, funny and charismatic. She'd heard few stories about him but those that she had were enough to give an insight into how mischievous and bold he was as a child. There was still a certain twinkle in his sunken eyes.

Azkaban had definitely taken its toll on his body, he was a shell of the man he once was. But then he smirked and suddenly his face seemed to become far more familiar and she could still see parts of the young boy she had seen in the rare portraits that hadn't been burned by Walburga.

She pulled her cloak tighter around her chest. _If you truly thought I was a murderer you would've left the second I revealed myself. The fact that you are still standing here talking to me suggests you think otherwise._ His words still rung in her head. He had a point, she had stayed despite that fact that he was an apparent murderer. The truth was that something in her gut made her stay. She wanted to believe that the most notorious black sheep of the family had turned out to be a decent human being. It gave her a shred of hope that maybe, just maybe she would become something better too.

She spent the walk up to the castle debating what to do. She would definitely send an owl down with some food at least once if she could, he looked like he hadn't eaten well in a long time. She wouldn't tell anyone, her gut was telling her to trust him. She figured that he knew what he was doing.

The only problem was Neville. Part of her wanted to tell him, they were both trying to get better at not hiding things ( which was pretty much a one-sided effort to get her to open up to him, an effort which really wasn't going very far.) but the other part of her realised how bloody insane she would sound if she said it out loud. 'Oh, by the way, Neville, I followed the dog into a cave and then he turned into Sirius Black and we had a nice chat.'

No, she decided. She would keep this to herself, just to see how the whole situation played out.

...

Ebony had barely got out of the portrait hole when She was ambushed by her friend.

"Hey, you're back!" Neville crossed the common room and flung his arms around her neck. "I missed you." He mumbled. She laughed and pulled away to look him in the face.

"Neville, I was gone for two hours at the most."

"So?" She snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Well," she said, pulling the honeydukes sweets out of her bag, "What should we do first?"

She just grinned as she watched Neville's face light up.

...

"You know I always thought I was bad at chess," Neville said while his queen smashed her king off the board, "then I played against you."

"Oh piss off." She grumbled. They were on their fourth match of the afternoon and she was yet to come even close to winning.

"Language, there are children around." He said, letting out a dramatic gasp. The common room was mainly full with first and second years who were enjoying the lack of older students, most of whom were still in Hogsmeade.

Ebony just flicked his queen off the board."Let's play something else."

"Exploding snap?"

"Sure, gives me a chance to win at something." She watched as he disappeared up to his dorm to get the cards. Her head was still swirling of the events of the last few hours and honestly, she was exhausted. She stared out the window, watching the tops of the trees sway in the wind and replaying the events of the afternoon in her head.

"You alright?" Ebony didn't even hear Neville come back.

"Yeah," she said, snapping out of her daze and smiling perhaps a little too wide. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He sat down opposite her, wearing his 'concerned' face which Ebony was not a fan of. "Did something happen?"

"Hmm?" She said arching her eyebrow.

"You seem distracted."

"Oh," she said, flushing. "Yeah, ...just had a run-in with Draco and his friends. They were being pricks, as per."

It was true. Though the whole run-in with Sirius was still messing with her head, Goyle's words were still stinging. 'I think your Boggart would beg to differ.' To be honest she hadn't really thought about the Boggart incident since it had happened.

She had always been scared of her parents, her relationship with them was never good but had gotten considerably more tense as she got older. Neither of them seemed to be a fan of the fact that she was growing up and forming her own opinions, specifically that she didn't think that muggles and muggleborns were the scum of the earth. She had started putting up more of a fight, wouldn't always take what they said sitting down, and they despised it. The fact that they were her biggest fear was embarrassing. Surely there had to be something else that she was more scared of. Surely.

"I don't get him," Neville said, dealing out the cards, "you're his cousin you think he'd be nice to you."

"It's complicated," she said, sighing and picking at her sleeve. "We used to be close when we were younger." They were almost inseparable when they were little. The Malfoys were round the manor a lot and she and Draco had spent countless hours hiding from the house elves and sneaking sweets from the kitchen. The number of visits dwindled as they grew older, Lucius was moving up in the ministry and her parents didn't agree with it, the ministry was full of 'mud blood loving traitors' as they so eloquently put it. Then her sorting happened and suddenly the Malfoys didn't want their son hanging around her anymore, least not in public. " but then I officially became the family embarrassment."

"Still."

She just shrugged. "His dad puts a lot of pressure on him and stuff."

"Are his parents anything like yours?"

"Merlin no," she said, almost laughing at the idea, "his father can be a little intense but they both completely adore him. He is very much a spoilt brat in more ways than one." She smiled, "I guess I got lucky with the psycho parents."

They fell silent. Then Neville moved next to her and threw his arm around her shoulders.

"We can be family embarrassments together."

Ebony just smiled and leant her head on his shoulder. She breathed in the musky smell of his jumper and sighed. She would never let her parents take him away from her. No one made her feel happy or safe as he did. He was the greatest friend she could ask for. No matter how many times she questioned whether she deserved him, he made it all the more clear that he was going nowhere.

She wrapped her arms around his waist.

He was her best friend and he was all she needed.


	17. Third Year - 17

**Author note: Hello there, another chapter for you!**

**This one took a little longer than I anticipated but school has been keeping me busy so apologies for the delay.**

**I really hope you enjoy and please review- they honestly make me so happy!**

**Stay safe, stay healthy and remember- keep smiling , you beautiful humans xx**

Ebony jerked awake, panting and holding her hands over her ears to block out the screams that weren't really there. She rubbed her eyes and took a couple of shaky breaths. She couldn't even remember who was screaming, all she remembered was her mother's wand pointed at someone that might have been her or might have been someone else. She wrapped her arms around herself. One good night's sleep was all she wanted, was that too much to ask?

She climbed out of bed to use the toilet when she noticed the date on the calendar pinned to the end of Hermione's bed. Ebony almost laughed at herself. It was her fourteenth birthday and she'd completely forgotten.

Ebony thought about how the other girls in her dorm woke up on their birthdays - small pile of presents at the foot of their beds, cards in the post. Instead, she had woken up from a nightmare, no pile of presents or cards and had only realised what day it was when she got up to piss. She was lucky if her parents even remembered it was her birthday at all.

"Happy fucking birthday." She muttered under her breath.

...

Ebony was just stumbling into the common room when Neville, who seemingly came out of nowhere, tackled her with a hug. She was so caught off guard that she lost her balance and the two of them fell behind the sofa.

"Morning to you too?"

"It's the 19th of March today," he said, his face inches away from hers, his hands either side of her head. "Happy birthday Eb," Ebony just smiled as she stared into his emerald eyes. She felt her cheeks going pink.

"You remembered?"

"Of course I did, "Do you think I'm that stupid? ," he said. Ebony was about to say that she found it interesting that he remembered a date that she didn't even remember telling him but he constantly forgot where he put his quill two minutes after he put it down but Neville saw the slight smirk on her face and got there first. "Actually, don't answer that." They both burst out laughing. Neville rolled over to sit next to her, stretching his legs out in front of him.

"Tackling someone to the ground is an interesting way to say happy birthday it has to be said." She said, elbowing him lightly.

"Not my finest moment."

"You've done worse." She snorted, "The number of times you have sent both of us tumbling down a staircase is honestly concerning." Neville just shoved her in response.

"Any presents so far?"

"You're kidding?" She said, raising her eyebrows.

"Your parents not send you anything?" He said, a slight look of surprise on his face. Ebony just laughed.

"What do you think," she said, "Honestly, I doubt that they remembered."

"Really?"

"Is it surprising?" She flopped her head against the back of the sofa. "If by some miracle they remember then they'll probably send a pile of books or something. Nothing special."

"What sort of parents don't even remember their daughter's birthday?" Ebony couldn't help but notice that he looked almost angry as he spoke.

"Seriously it's not a big deal." She said, giving her friend a small smile. "Besides, it means I can pretend they don't exist and that is a present in itself."

Neville looked like he wanted to say something else but it was just then that Seamus came down the stairs and tripped over Neville's outstretched legs, which were inconveniently right across the doorway, with a cry of, 'Bloody fuck,'

"Watch where you're putting your obnoxiously long legs, Neville." He grumbled as he picked himself up.

"You're just bitter I'm taller than you," Neville replied with a smirk.

"Only by an inch." He muttered as he walked away. The two of them just laughed.

"Well then," Neville said, slinging his arm over her shoulders, "Since it's a Saturday, I thought that we could go and hang out by the lake."

"That sounds lovely," she said beaming at him, "I've just got to drop a book off at the library first."

"Fine by me, I've got somewhere to head first anyway."

She knitted her brow as he got to his feet, "And where might that be?"

"Doesn't matter," he said helping her up. "I'll meet you down there."

Ebony just stared at him as he hurried into the portrait hole smirking.

...

Ebony was just coming out of the library when she heard someone shouting. She turned to see Draco coming towards her.

"Hey," he said, a little out of breath.

"Not got the cronies today then?"

"Piss off," he muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Sure you don't want to flush my head down a toilet?" She said, arching an eyebrow.

"That was one time."

"It was bloody disgusting." She retorted. He chewed his lip.

"I came to say happy birthday actually." He said, smiling softly at her.

"Oh," Ebony's gaze softened, "Well thanks, it's nice to know someone in my family remembered."

"You not heard anything from them?"

"It's for the best," she said with a sigh, " I doubt either of them would have anything pleasant to say."

Draco shuffled his feet for a moment before digging into his bag and hesitantly thrusting a small decorated box in her direction. "I.. err, I got you this." Ebony took it, turning the dark brown wood over in her hands. She ran her finger down the silver edge which closed with an intricate pattern in the middle. "You set up a password and no one else can open it."

She gave her cousin a smile, "Thank you, Draco."

"Its got an extension charm on it. I thought it might stop you getting in so much trouble, you know if you had a place to hide things." He said, "I don't know what you did at Christmas but I can guess you had a 'disagreement'."

Ebony shrugged, "You know how they are, I'll spare the details."

"Piss off Auntie Bella?" Ebony shook her head.

"No it was all father this time, mother had disappeared for a couple of days and he was in a grump about it."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Ebony paused for a moment, "I think my mum might be having an affair."

Draco's mouth dropped open. "What on earth makes you think that?"

"She disappeared then wouldn't tell father where she'd gone and she was in an unusually good mood, well for her anyway. Not to mention the first day she was gone dad was the drunkest I've ever seen him, its what put him in a foul mood on the first place."

"Fucking hell." He breathed.

Ebony just shrugged. "Doesn't surprise me, they've never really gotten along. Well, not in my lifetime anyway. Although, I probably don't help things."

"You could try and just tell them what they want to hear for once."

"You don't think I tried that?" She scoffed, "Makes no difference so I might as well not bring myself down to their level."

"Malfoy mate, you coming?" Ebony looked over her shoulder to see Blaine Zambini leaning against the wall near the stairs.

"I gotta go," Draco said, straightening his tie. He was just walking off when she grabbed his arm.

"Seriously though," she said, clutching the box to her chest. "Thank you."

He gave her one last smile and hurried off down the corridor.

...

Ebony made her way down to the shore of the lake, squinting her eyes in the sun. It was surprisingly warm for March, she'd already shed her cardigan on her way down. She saw Neville waving her over and walked over to where he was sitting before stopping dead in her tracks.

Laid out on a blanket was a magnificent picnic. The was a pile of sandwiches, crisps, Butterbeer, and, to top it off, a small white cake with purple flowers around the edge.

"You like it?" Neville was grinning widely, a nervous look on his face.

Ebony kept opening her mouth to speak but she couldn't get any words to come out. Neville came over and took her hand, leading her to the blanket.

Ebony was still shocked. "You...you...you did all this, for me?"

"I mean, I may have had some help for the house-elves," he said, still looking rather pleased with himself. "Hannah showed me how to get to the kitchens, which reminds me, I need to show you where they are, it's really good if you ever want a snack."

Ebony was still staring in awe at the display in front of her as she sat down. "This is quite possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me." She grinned as she watched Neville blush.

"Oh, before I forget," he said, digging around in his trouser pocket. "Happy birthday Ebony." He held out a small velvet bag.

"I told you not to get me anything." She muttered, taking it from him.

"And I told you not to get me anything but you still snuck Aconite seeds and a dozen chocolate frogs into my trunk for my birthday last year."

Ebony just smiled guiltily.

"Oh, open it already." He cried, watching her with eager eyes.

She just laughed at him and slowly undid the bag and poured the contents into her hand. "Neville..." on her hand lay a small flat piece of silver about the size of the tip of her thumb. It was decorated with gold trim and hung on a thin silver chain. "It's beautiful."

Neville grinned and reached into his shirt, pulling out an identical one on a thin piece of brown leather. "They belonged to my parents, you have my mum's. They charmed them themselves, watch." He squeezed it between his thumb and forefinger and Ebony felt hers buzz in her hand. "So now, even when you can't write I'll know you're okay."

Ebony just stared at him, gobsmacked. If her parents got her birthday presents they were for the sake of presents. They were never anything she actually wanted, not that she was being ungrateful, it was more to do with the fact her parents didn't really seem to know her at all.

She looked back at the necklace in her hand. She had never been given something so thoughtful, so meaningful. It was a part of Neville's family and he had chosen her of all people to give it to. She flung her arms around his neck, clinging on and fighting the urge to cry.

"Thank you," she muffled into his chest, "thank you so much."

Neville squeezed her back and she felt him chuckle. "You're starting the hugs from now on because this is a damn good one."

She finally pulled away and held the necklace out to him, "Can you help me?" He took it and she turned around, holding her hair up.

The feeling of his fingers brushing her neck and the coolness of the chain sent shivers down her spine.

"There," he said, smoothing the collar of her shirt down.

"Are you sure I should have this?" She said, twisting it in her fingers, already loving the feel of it against her skin."I mean it was your mum's and-"

"-You're my best friend and I could think of no better person to give it to." He said firmly. "Now I don't know about you, but this food isn't going to eat itself."

Ebony couldn't stop smiling.

..

They steadily made their way through most of the food and Neville had managed to only spill his butterbeer, Ebony did have to help dry his trousers with a drying charm to save him from walking around looking like he'd peed himself.

Only the cake was left.

"All right then," Nevile said, sticking a candle in the middle of it. "Time to make a wish."

She sat and watched as he lit the end of it with his wand.

"That fact that you did that without burning anything else is honestly a miracle."

"Birthday miracle just for you," he grinned, "Now go on."

She knelt in front of it and closed her eyes and wished the first thing that came into her head.

_Please never let me lose him._

...

Neville was laying on his back, squinting at the sky and Ebony was lying on her stomach. They were both in hysterics.

"I wish you could've seen Gran's face when she found the plant pots hidden under my bed."

"I thought you had a garden and a greenhouse," she said between laughs. "Why the hell were you growing Gurdyroots under your bed?"

Neville just grinned. "Because Gran said I had too many plants already, so I was trying to be sneaky."

"I really don't think she would've noticed another plant in amongst the others."

"Oh, you'd be surprised how observant that woman is."

Ebony just laughed and shook her head. Neville turned onto his side, leaning his head on his elbow.

"What's something you've done then?" Ebony thought for a moment.

"One time," she said, " I did accidental magic when I was seven. The living room had all these weird glass decorations and I sneezed and they flew off the wall and smashed."

"Blimey," he said, raising his eyebrows, "that's some powerful magic, what did your parents think?"

"That's not important." She was not about to explain that that incident had led to a night spent in the cellar.

"They really not do anything for your birthday?"

She shrugged. "They used to throw a party and invite a bunch of people round but that's just what everyone does. I guess now I'm at Hogwarts they figured they didn't need to bother anymore."

"That sucks."

"I mean a room full of my relatives when I don't have a valid reason to sneak away isn't really my idea of fun anyway," She said, propping herself up on her elbows. "Besides, I don't want to talk about them today."

"Fair enough."

"C'mon," she said, climbing to her feet. "Let's go skim stones on the lake."

"I don't know how."

She just grinned and held out her hand, "I'll show you."

...

It was almost dark by the time they got back to the common room and they both seemed ready to fall asleep. Before they parted ways at the stairs, she pulled him in for a hug.

"Thank you," she murmured into his chest, "this has by far been the best birthday I've ever had."

"Oh, just you wait until next year." She lifted her head to see him grinning. She beamed back at him.

"Goodnight Neville."

"Night Eb."

...

Ebony had just gotten into bed when she felt three small pulses against her chest and she smiled. There was something about having a way to him, a connection with him at all times that made her feel safe and comforted. A constant reminder that he was always there. She picked up the necklace and squeezed it three times.

It buzzed back - three pulses again. She sighed happily and dropped it onto her chest. The coolness of the metal felt at home on her skin, as if it had always been there.

It had most definitely been the best birthday ever.

...

Neville smiled as he tucked the necklace back into his pyjama shirt. He had had them for a while, Gran had given him them shortly after he started Hogwarts. She told him that his parents would've wanted him to have them and give the other to his best friend. He'd forgotten about them till now.

He just thought it better not to mention to her who he'd given it to. He talked about Ebony a lot to his gran at first but she either raised her eyebrows at him or changed the subject. She clearly did not approve of his choice of a friend but Neville thought she seemed more relieved that he had made a friend at all so decided to hold her tongue. Instead, he found that it was easier to just not mention who he was talking about.

Neville lay back against his pillows. He couldn't help thinking about the fact that Ebony's parents had sent nothing to their daughter at all - not even a simple card.

He knew that Ebony's relationship with her parents - or lack thereof- hurt her a lot more than she let on. She made jokes and laughed and shrugged it off but Neville could always see her eyes cloud over whenever they were mentioned. He had tried to get her to talk about them countless times but ever since the argument in the hospital wing, he was nervous about pushing her too much. He wanted to help and the last thing he wanted to do was upset her.

He could never imagine having parents that would want to hurt their child or who barely remembered them half the time. Gran was a strict woman and could be fairly scary if she wanted to but Neville knew that she loved him and just wanted the best for him, even if she struggled to show it sometimes.

That's why he wanted to make Ebony's birthday perfect. To show that no matter how useless they made her feel, she was worth so much more. And it had been worth all the effort to see her smile. She had a pretty smile, it lit up her whole face, made her eyes and nose crinkle. And it made his chest jump when he was the reason it appeared.

He would protect her, no matter what. After all, she more than deserved to be happy.


	18. Third Year - 18

**Author note: Another long chapter for you!**

**Third year is coming to a close soon and honestly I never thought that I would get this far. I started writing this story purely to get the idea out of my head so the fact that people are reading and enjoying it makes me so happy.**

**The story still has a long way to go so I hope you will stick with it.**

**As always- let me know what you think or ask any questions - your comments make me so happy.**

**Hope you are all staying safe and well xxx**

They fell into a routine from then on, using the necklaces to say goodnight. Neville always went first, nothing that they had decided, it just happened. Three pulses from him, three from her.

Sometimes when either of them woke up from a nightmare they would pass a buzz back and forth until they both fell back to sleep. Ebony loved it, a constant comfort that she had never had before. She never took it off, the feeling of it tucked inside her shirt became so familiar that she felt somewhat naked without it.

She was also terrified that if she took it off she would lose it, something which Neville was yet to do which was surprising as he misplaced at least one of his possessions every day.

...

Ebony couldn't sleep. That wasn't anything unusual but she had grown tired of tossing and turning, she couldn't get her mind to shut off and the warmer weather was making the dorm too stuffy to get comfortable. She had tried to see if Neville was awake by pressing her necklace but her friend was seemingly out cold. They both struggled to get to sleep sometimes but once Neville was out he could sleep through anything. She gave up trying and decided to get out of bed.

Ebony had ventured down to the common room and was surprised to see a red-haired girl lying on the floor in front of the fire. It was nearly three o clock in the morning and she hadn't expected anyone else to be awake. The girl looked over as Ebony came in.

"Hi," she said, smiling.

"Er.. hi," Ebony said, "Sorry I didn't think anyone would be here at this time."

"It's alright," the girl waved her over, "come join me."

Ebony hesitated but walked over and lay down next to her. The girl rolled onto her side and Ebony was finally able to see her face properly. "Ginny isn't it?" She asked.

"That's me," Ginny said, "though I think the hair was a dead give away." Ebony smiled.

"And you're Ebony, right? Neville's friend?"

"Yep."

"So, Ebony," Ginny said, leaning on her elbows, "What brings you down here at this time?"

"I couldn't sleep," she admitted. Ginny nodded in agreement.

"Me neither," she said, "bad dreams?" Ebony nodded and Ginny flopped down onto her back and sighed.

It was a strange feeling, Ebony had never really spoken to Ginny yet, at that moment, she felt completely comfortable around her. It was the kind of feeling that could only be found in the small hours of the morning when the world was at peace.

"You do this a lot?" Ebony asked, finally breaking the still silence between them.

"Yeah," she replied, "it's a good place to think."

"I suppose it is."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Hmm?"

"Come on, I can practically see the cogs turning in your head."

"I'm just thinking about why anyone would like me." Ebony wasn't quite sure what it was about lying on the floor with Ginny in the small hours of the morning that made her say this out loud. It was as though the world had stopped for a moment and nothing she could say would even be remembered in a few hours.

"What makes you think that?"

"My parents aren't exactly the nicest people, most people see my last name and think Death Eater. They presume that I'm a horrible person too."

"I don't"

"And why is that?"

"Just because you've got bits of bad stuff in you doesn't mean you're evil." She said rolling over onto her side. "I got mixed up with some dark magic last year but it doesn't make me a bad person."

"I'd never thought about it like that," Ebony replied, "Thanks, Ginny."

"Besides, Neville is literally one of the nicest people and he keeps you around so you can't be that bad."

"I guess." She said, smiling.

She felt strangely comforted by Ginny's words.

They both just lay there staring at the ceiling, each finding comfort in the steady breathing of the girl beside her.

She had always wondered why Neville wanted to be friends with her in the first place. He was the one person who had every right to hate her with every fibre of his being. But he didn't. Instead, he was nothing but kind and caring towards her.

Ebony was starting to realise that she had never cared about anyone so much in her life. Draco had been her best friend for the first part of her life but it wasn't the same. He was family, there because he had to be, not out of choice.

Neville, on the other hand, chose her. He had somehow slipped into her life and refused to leave and Ebony couldn't think how she would've made it this far without him there to make her laugh, smile and just generally be clumsy around her.

She closed her eyes and thought back to the first time they'd met. It was brief, on the morning of their first proper day at Hogwarts and Ebony had received a Howler about her sorting.

_Ebony tucked herself into an alcove in the corridor off the Great Hall, she buried her face in her hands, her cheeks still burning. She had just been yelled at by her parents in front of everyone. What a great way to start the year._

_She hadn't meant to do it. She'd begged the sorting hat to put her into Slytherin but it wouldn't listen, insisting that it was not where she belonged._

_She wasn't quite sure how to feel about that._

_Ebony heard movement next to her and looked up to see a chubby, brown-haired boy looking at her, shuffling his feet._

_"That was rough."_

_She shrugged. She didn't know who he was but she was really not in the mood to talk to anyone right now._

_"I came to give you this," he thrust a piece of paper in her direction which turned out to be her timetable. "You left as Professor McGonagall was handing them out."_

_"Thanks." It was quiet and she wasn't sure if he heard it. She took the paper and stared at it intensely, hoping he would get the hint and leave as she was not sure of what else to say to the boy._

_She only looked up when she heard footsteps retreating. She watched him wander back into the hall._

_That's when she noticed 3 slices of toast on a napkin next to her on the floor and the corners of her mouth twitched into a smile._

Ebony didn't feel that she had ever done anything to deserve his friendship but she was more than grateful for it.

...

"I mean it's incredible," Neville said whilst shovelling pasta into his mouth, "a plant that changes colour depending on the weather."

"That is pretty cool." Ebony was only really half listening to him, more focused on subtlety slipping bread rolls into her pocket. She had managed to send food down to Sirius once before and figured she should try again. Even though he could turn into a dog, she thought that he probably didn't enjoy eating out of bins.

She listened to Neville's rambling until they were finished eating and then the two of them left the Great hall. They headed down the corridor and Neville stopped near the door to the grounds.

"I'll see you after Herbology club then?" Neville said.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure you don't want to join?"

"I don't exactly have a green thumb," Ebony said, smiling, "and we both know that the only reason I even pass Herbology is because you help me."

"Give yourself some credit."

"Then admit that you're actually good at DADA." Neville pretended to scowl at her.

"I'll see you later."

She watched him walk out of the gate and then hurried in the opposite direction towards the owlry.

...

Ebony looked around to check that she was alone and then emptied the contents of her pocket, 6 bread rolls and 2 muffins. She laid them out on a handkerchief and then twisted the corners together and tied them up with string. She attached it to the tawny owl that was sat waiting.

"Deliver this to the caves just outside Hogsmeade okay?" The owl hooted and took off.

Ebony watched it soar away from the castle and disappear behind the trees.

She thought about how lonely it must be for Sirius, living in a cave, unable to talk to anyone because the Wizarding world thinks you're a murderer. In all honesty, Ebony still wasn't quite sure about the whole situation but her gut told her to trust him. She only hoped that at some point he would be able to explain what the hell was going on. There wasn't another Hogsmeade weekend for a while and even then, Ebony felt guilty at the thought of leaving Neville alone.

She exhaled deeply, looking at where the sun was setting behind the trees.

It had been a long year.

...

They were eating breakfast when the jet black owl landed in front of Ebony, it's amber eyes glaring at her.

"Your parents wrote to you?"

Ebony obviously heard the disbelief in his voice " Trust me, I'm just as surprised as you are." She took the letter from the owl's beak, which nipped her finger as soon as she did. Ebony stuck her finger in her mouth as it started to bleed. "What are you waiting for?" She asked when the owl didn't fly off. She batted it with the envelope, "Shoo."

It hooted at her and flew off but not before it did a large poo in her bowl of cereal. Ebony wrinkled her nose and shoved the bowl away. "I swear that bird hates me as much as they do."

"That is not a bird," he said, "that is a literal demon." Neville had never seen such an angry owl in his life.

He watched as she opened the letter and couldn't help but notice the slight tremor in her hands as she tore the envelope. He watched her eyes dart across the page, trying to read her expression.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she said stuffing the letter into her pocket. "They want me to go home over Easter for some family thing. Lucky me."

"You don't have to go."

"Don't I?"

"You could write and say you are busy."

Ebony snorted. " I can already see how well that would go."

"What if you asked McGonagall?"

"What am I supposed to say?" Ebony said, "Professor would you mind telling my parents that I hate them and don't want to go home."

Neville thought for a moment. "You could just spill some rubbish about how you want to study for your tests or something. I mean it wouldn't be a total lie - we are already getting mountains of homework."

The lead up to end of year exams always sucked, teachers piling on homework weeks before. Third-year was especially bad as they all had new subjects to study for. It was definitely the worst part of the year.

"Good point." Ebony replied, reaching for some toast, "I'll go talking to her after Charms this afternoon."

...

It wasn't until she was stood outside McGonagall's office that Ebony thought that maybe she should just suck it up and go home. Apparently some relative or other was getting married and it was important that she attended. Ebony had been to more weddings in her life then she could count on her fingers and really didn't see what was so special about this one. It probably wouldn't even be that bad. But she couldn't lie to herself, the thought of it made her stomach twist in knots.

No, this was worth a go.

Ebony took a deep breath and then knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Professor McGonagall called. She hesitantly pushed the door open.

McGonagall looked over the top of her glasses at her and then put down the paper she was looking at. "Ebony," she said, sounding surprised, "what can I do for you?"

"Erm...I was wondering if I could ask you something." Ebony could feel her face flushing.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall said, clasping her hands together. "Go on,"

"My parents want me to go home over Easter." She said, hovering awkwardly at the edge of McGonagall's desk. She wasn't sure whether to sit down or not and it felt too late now to do so.

"Right."

"But I feel that my time would be better spent here, focusing on my end of year exams."

"I see."

"So," Ebony was twisting the ends of her sleeves together. "I was wondering if you could maybe... if it's not too much trouble Professor... write to them and say just that."

McGonagall raised her eyebrows slightly. "Could you not write them yourself?"

"They most likely wouldn't listen to me. I thought that if you wrote to them then they would."

McGonagall looked at her for a minute. Ebony gave an uneasy smile, unsure of what else to do.

"Ebony," her voice became softer, "you know could tell me if this was about more than just wanting study for tests?"

"Yes," she said, not meeting McGonagall's eye. Why did teachers always feel the need to say things like that?

"And is it?"

Ebony hesitated. "No, I just want to do well this year." It wasn't a complete lie, she did want to do well and knew for a fact that she would get very little studying done if she went home.

"Very well." Ebony couldn't help but notice that Professor McGonagall looked almost disappointed at her response. "I will contact your parents and suggest that you would be better off spending your Easter here."

"Thank you, Professor," Ebony said, possibly smiling a little too much as she turned and left the office, feeling as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

...

Remus looked up as Minerva let herself into his office.

"I really don't know who that girl thinks she's fooling." She muttered as she sat opposite him.

"Good evening to you too Minnie." He chuckled.

"You boys and your nicknames." She said rolling her eyes.

"Tea?"

"Only if you're making it." He got up to heat up the kettle.

"Who are you muttering about today?" He said over his shoulder as he poured the water into two mugs. He gave them a stir and then turned back to his desk, handing one over to Minerva.

"Ebony," she said as slid her glasses down and rubbed her nose. Remus' grin faltered slightly as he sat down.

"What's happened now?"

"She came to my office to ask if I could inform her parents that I thought she would better off staying here over Easter so that she could study." Minerva sipped her tea. "She seemed to think that they wouldn't listen to her."

"And what did you say?"

"I said I'd do it of course, who do you take me for." She said, batting Remus' arm. "I'd like to keep her out of that house as much as possible, especially after whatever happened over Christmas break."

"Did we ever get to the bottom of that?"

McGonagall smiled sadly and looked at Remus over the top of her glasses, a look that he became far too familiar with in school. "What do you think?" Remus shrugged. " Trying to get information out of her is like trying to get water out of a rock."

"You're not wrong there."

She sighed, setting her mug down on the desk. "From Poppy's examination, she was malnourished, hadn't eaten in days by the look of things. She had a nasty black eye and though Poppy didn't get a chance to look, Ebony was clearly suffering from some sort of backache."

"I don't even want to imagine what could've caused that."

"Knowing what both of those people are capable of, it doesn't bear thinking about."

Remus set his own mug down, wrapping his hands around the warmth. He almost shuddered at the thought of what could've happened to her. He had duelled both the Lestranges in the war and neither of them were known to show any kind of mercy.

"What are we going to do about her?" He said, "The summer holidays will come soon enough and then she'll be on her own. If all that happened in two weeks god knows what they'll do over eight."

Minerva took her glasses off and sighed. "I'm not usually one to sit back and do nothing," she said, her eyes almost glistening, "But this is an incredibly delicate matter until Ebony comes to us herself or we gain some concrete evidence of the situation there is nothing we can do."

"Fuck," Remus said rubbing his face and then looked at Minerva with

an almost panicked look in his eyes as he registered the word that had come out of his mouth. Minerva just grinned at him.

"You're not a child anymore Remus," she said, "I'm not going to tell you off."

"Old habits die hard I guess."

"Besides that's hardly the worst I've heard you say." She smirked, "you could blame the other boys all you wanted but I always knew it was you who swore like a sailor."

All Remus could do was smile guiltily and drink his tea.

...

Ebony had a spring in her step as she made her way back to Gryffindor tower. She had no idea how her parents would respond but considering that threat that they had made at the start of the year she couldn't see them disagreeing.

Neville wasn't in the common room when she arrived. She found Seamus hanging upside down on an armchair flicking dung bombs at the wall. She arched her eyebrow but didn't comment on his actions. "Hey Seamus, you seen Neville?"

"Yeah, he's upstairs in the dorm." He replied, squinting as he aimed his next bomb at the wall.

"Thanks, " she said, watching as the dung bomb splattered against the wall, "I'll erm..leave you to it."

...

Neville was lying on his bed muttering away to Trevor, who was sat on his chest. He didn't notice Ebony come in.

"I mean it's really annoying." Trevor croaked in response. Ebony just smiled and leant against the doorframe. "I know, it's so unfair."

"Am I interrupting something?"

Neville sat up suddenly, looking flushed. Trevor jumped off his chest and gave a disgruntled croak before hiding under the bed.

"Hi Ebony, I was...em...I was just..."

"Talking to Trevor?" She said as she walked over and flopped onto the bed next to him.

"Erm...no?"

"Must've been my imagination then."

"How'd it go?" He said, clearly keen to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"She said she'd do it."

"That's good."

"Yep, just to wait now and see what happens, worst comes to worst, I have to go home."

"I don't want you to go back there."

"Like I said we'll see what they say-"

"No, I don't want you to ever have to go back there." Ebony just looked at him and sighed.

"It's not that bad."

"We clearly have different definitions of 'bad'."

"What do you suggest I do? Runaway?" At Neville's expression, she just sighed. "I was joking. Even if I did, it's not like I have anywhere else to go."

"You could come and stay with me."

She smiled sadly at him. "While I appreciate the offer, we both know that your grandmother would not be a fan of that."

Neville sighed and looked at his lap. Ebony put her arm around his shoulders. "Hey," he looked up, "thank you though." She watched as his eyes were welling up with tears.

"It's not fair that you have to live there." He moaned, "it's not fair you have to live with horrible people and I-" his voice cracked, "- hate the thought of them hurting you." He mumbled as a couple of stray tears rolled down his face.

"Fucksake Neville, you know I'm not good when you cry," she said, wiping his cheek with her sleeve. He just sniffled. She gave him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry about me. Whatever they do, I can take it."

"You shouldn't have to."

"But I do." She playfully batted at his arm. "Now come on, if anyone should be crying it should be me."

"You almost never do," He sniffed, " so I do it for you." He leant his head back against her arm. They lay there, Ebony relaxing under the weight of his body on her side.

"Why don't you cry?"

The question was unusually blunt and she frowned, "I do cry."

"Not really, not in front of me anyway. You always look like you're trying really hard not to."

Ebony rolled her eyes.

"You would do so much better in classes if you put in half as much effort to your work as you do analysing my behaviour."

"Shut up." He said, "I'm being serious."

"I don't like crying in front of people, what's wrong with that?"

"Is it that you don't like doing it or that you are scared to?."

Ebony sat up and pulled away from him, "what do you mean by that?"

"I think it's pretty obvious that they wouldn't be the type of people to comfort you when you are upset."

_Lestranges don't cry._

_Don't be so pathetic._

_Fucking pull yourself together._

_Don't be such a baby._

_Quit blubbering_.

Ebony just looked away from him and chewed on the knuckle of her thumb. She didn't know what to say.

"What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to hide your emotions from me, " he said and she turned back to look at him, "it's what I'm here for." He reached over and took her hand. "Besides I think it's only fair considering that I cry in front of you at least once a day."

Ebony snorted and rolled her eyes, "It's not my fault that you are overly emotional."

"Am not."

"Yesterday you cried because that weird plant in the greenhouse you like, flowered."

"It's really rare for them to do that!" He insisted.

"Okay buddy, okay." She said, smiling and shaking her head.


	19. Third Year - 19

**Author note: Hey!**

**Sorry, this chapter took so long. I meant to get it up last week but then I ended up going on a small holiday in the Highlands to get away from everything for a bit and then it was my birthday. Also, I'm just the worst procrastinator:).**

**I tried to write Quidditch, I don't like it but it's there so oh well.**

**Really hope you enjoy - Let me know what you think!**

**Have a lovely day/night and stay safe xx**

Her parents reply arrived two days later. The family owl, Malum, swooped into the hall and dropped the letter in front of her, not sticking around this time, much to Ebony's relief. She tore open the letter and anxiously read it's contents.

_Ebony,_

_We received word for your head of house that she feels that it would beneficial to your studies if you were to remain at school over the Easter break. Though your presence will be missed, it is good to see you finally taking your work seriously and so I will allow you to stay at school over the holidays._

_This extra studying better make a difference in your results - I'm sure that you do not need a repeat of the conversation that was had at the start of the school year._

_ Don't let us down._

_R. Lestrange_

She just stared at her father's loopy signature. She couldn't quite believe what she had just read- both that she was actually able to stay at school and that 'her presence will be missed.' It was hard to say which one was more surprising.

"What does it say?" Neville asked through a mouthful of cereal. Ebony turned to him and grinned.

"Guess who's staying over Easter!" Neville dropped his spoon.

"Really?"

"Yep," she said, still beaming at him. "Your brilliant bloody idea worked!"

"No need to sound so surprised."

Ebony playfully elbowed him.

It felt as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. No matter how much holiday homework they had received, the fact that she didn't have to go home until summer was enough to lighten her mood.

Her joyous feeling did not last long though as the reality of how much work they all had to do set in.

"So much for a 'holiday'," Seamus moaned as he threw a ball of paper at Dean's head, who merely shot him a dirty look. "I don't know why all the teachers are going mad, exams are ages away and it's not like they're OWL's or anything."

Neville was a nervous wreck, even more so than usual, which did not help in his overall clumsiness. It had got to the point that Ebony had to ask Hermione to help her put a cushioning charm on his ink bottle because he kept elbowing it off the table onto the stone floor below.

Still, Ebony knew that this was far better than if she had gone home for the week.

...

Ebony shoved her ancient runes textbook off the desk with a groan of frustration. The noise earned her a glare from several students. She and Neville were in the library trying to get the bulk of their holiday revision done and out of the way in the hope that they could perhaps have a few days off at the end of the week. It was not looking likely.

"I don't know why my parents didn't let me take divination instead, ancient runes is bloody impossible!" She buried her face in her hands. "It's like they're setting me up to fail."

"I would offer to help but honestly, I feel I may be more of a hindrance," Neville said, not looking up from his work.

Ebony gave him a small grateful smile which faltered as her eyes fell onto his notes.

"Neville you can't just revise Herbology all the time."

"I'm not." Ebony raised her eyebrows at him. "I want to do well in it, what's wrong with that?" She rolled her eyes and snatched the parchment from in front of him. Then she grabbed his transfiguration book and shoved it under his nose.

"You could do the Herbology exam with your eyes closed and you know it." He gave a defeated sigh and reluctantly grabbed a new piece of parchment.

"Yes, Professor." He said a cheeky grin on his face.

Ebony rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Piss off."

...

"Jesus fuck it's cold." Ebony cursed as the cold water of the lake splashed around her ankles. The two of them finally seemed to have some time to themselves and the sun was high in the sky so they decided to go paddling in the Great Lake.

Ebony looked over to where Neville was still untying his shoes.

"Come on, slowcoach," she shouted, kicking water in his direction. He involuntarily opened his mouth in shock as the cold water sprayed him.

"Oh, you're so gonna pay for that." He said, rolling up his trousers. He inhaled sharply as he joined her in the water. "You'd think for April the water would be a bit warmer."

"I guess that's Scotland for you."

Neville scooped up water with his hands and threw it at her, catching Ebony off guard. She squealed, wrapping her arms around her soaked shirt.

"Oh, it's on Longbottom."

They chased each other, flicking water at one another and roaring with laughter. Though it wasn't until Neville stumbled and fell, dragging Ebony down with him, that the two of them got thoroughly soaked.

They sat in the shallow water giggling, both of them far too wet to even be bothered by the temperature of the water anymore.

"I'm glad you stayed here this week," Neville said, wiping his wet hair out of his eyes.

"Me too."

...

The Easter holidays seemed to both drag on and fly past at the same time. It wasn't until Ebony noticed the small group of students coming through the main entrance as she made her way back to the common room that she even realised it was the last day.

She was just about to head up the stairs when she saw Draco coming round the corner.

"Hi."

"Hey," he said, dragging his trunk upright. "Missed you at the wedding."

"I'm so sad I didn't go." Ebony curled her bottom lip in mock sadness. "Was it tremendously boring?"

"What do you think?" She just snorted.

"No need to sound so bitter." He glowered at her. "Awww, are you sad I left you with only Blaise and Theo to talk to?" Draco rolled his eyes at her.

"They are my friends you know."

"Yeah but they aren't nearly as fun as me," she said with a smile, "they don't cause family drama by purely existing." There was a trace of a smile on his lips.

"How come you stayed here anyway?" From the way he was speaking Ebony could tell that he was far more annoyed that she hadn't come than he wanted to let on. It was almost enough to make her feel bad for skipping it. Almost.

"McGonagall thought that I needed to focus on my work and Mum and Dad agreed."

"You put that idea in her head I presume."

"So what if I did?" She said, smirking.

"You can't just avoid them forever you know."

"I can try." He rolled his eyes at her again and her smirk disappeared. "Don't give me that, you know what they're like, wouldn't you avoid them as much you could?."

Draco just sighed. "What about after Hogwarts? What are you going to do then?"

"I'm taking life one day at a time." He merely arched an eyebrow at her. "Oh I don't know, hang on till I'm seventeen and I get my inheritance? Then I guess I can get a place of my own, start my own life."

"They'd never let you do that."

"I'd like to see them try and stop me." She scoffed

"Such a bloody Gryffindor." He muttered and it made Ebony's jaw clench.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." He gave her a pointed look but she just shrugged. "I'd rather be a lion than a snake."

"You can't just keep your head down can you?" He snapped. "You just have to be different."

"Would you rather I torture every person that disagrees with me?"

"That's not what I meant."

"What did you mean then?"

"I mean it's probably best you didn't come because otherwise, you'd have to listen to what everyone says about you."

Ebony knew full well what everyone really thought about her, her parents reminded her often enough. They both loved nothing better than complain about her 'rebellious phase' and 'outlandish opinions'.

"What makes you think I actually care what anyone in our family thinks of me?"

She stared at him expectantly but he remained silent, choosing instead to just give her a pitying look which she ignored. "That's what I thought."

...

Ebony lay on her back stretched across the sofa. Her head was buzzing with Draco's words.

He was right, of course, he was. She couldn't avoid them forever, every skipped event was just putting off the inevitable. She'd have to go home and face them and their unpredictable moods in the summer anyway. She groaned. Going home was exhausting.

And it was true, she didn't care what any of them thought of her. Well, that's what she told herself anyway. The truth was that she couldn't afford to listen to any of them because after a while being told how much of a disgrace you are, starts to bring you down. So she pretended that her skin was thicker than it was, pretended that she didn't just want someone to say something nice once in a while. Pretended that she didn't care that her parents didn't love her.

She sighed. Even if she managed to last there until she became of age, she would most likely be married off by then to some twat and be stuck in a miserable marriage much like her parents. And then the cycle continues.

She grabbed a pillow and squashed it against her face. Why did she have to be stuck with the world's shittiest parents?

"Hey, I was looking for you." Ebony lifted up the pillow to see Neville by the sofa. He lifted up her legs and sat down, putting them over his lap. He frowned at her. "What's up?"

"I just had a chat with Draco."

"Ah."

"He was complaining that I abandoned him over the holidays." He let out a soft laugh. " and he said that I can't avoid my parents forever." Neville's small smile faded, "And the worst part is, he's right."

Neville didn't seem to know what to say.

She pressed her hands against her face and rubbed her eyes.

"I just can't catch a fucking break can I?" She groaned. "Every time I do anything it's never what I should've done ."

Ebony sighed and stared up at the ceiling as she felt Neville reach for her hand. He didn't say anything, he just held it. It was his way of telling her that he wasn't sure what to say but he was here regardless.

That was the thing about Neville. People could call him what they liked but he was loyal. In fact, Ebony was almost fairly sure that she could straight up kill someone and Neville would still be at her side.

She sighed gently and placed her other hand on top of his.

"Thanks." She mumbled.

"For what?"

"Being my friend."

...

"You know I've never really understood Quidditch," Ebony said as they sat down.

"You really don't seem like the sporty type, " Neville replied.

"Is that a good thing or not?"

Neville merely shrugged and returned his gaze down to the pitch.

They were sat in the stands ready to watch the Quidditch final.

It was true, Ebony could never really get what all the fuss was about but Neville enjoyed watching it so she wasn't going to leave him alone. Besides, pretty much the whole school had turned out for the match so she would be silly to miss it.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle and all the players zoomed up into the air and Lee Jordan's commentary was going at a hundred miles an hour to keep up with the action.

That was one reason Ebony wasn't a fan. The game moved far too quickly for her to keep up with any of it.

But she had to admit that the atmosphere of the game was quite spectacular, even though Neville was screaming right in her ear.

She spent most of the game watching Draco, she had to admit her cousin was pretty good on a broom. It was just a pity that his team seemed rather fond of playing dirty.

Although today, the game as a whole was turning out to be pretty violent, By the time the score was forty - ten to Gryffindor, both teams had scored a multitude of fouls.

"AND IT LOOKS AS THOUGH THE SEEKERS HAVE SPOTTED THE SNITCH!" Lee's voice boomed and everyone turned their attention to Harry and Draco dove towards the pitch. Draco lagged behind Harry and then ended up tugging on the end of his Firebolt, knocking Harry off balance.

Typical, she thought as outrage erupted from the stands, even McGonagall seemed furious. Draco could never just play by the rules.

His dirty tactics didn't pay off though, they both lost sight of the Snitch. The game carried on with Gryffindor in the lead. Harry eventually managed to grab the Snitch and landed, his fist raised in the air.

They'd won.

Ebony and Neville joined the rest of the supporters as they rushed onto the pitch. As they were all jumping and cheering Ebony looked over to the corner of the pitch and saw the black scruffy dog wagging its tail before slipping away under the seats.

Maybe the match had been interesting after all.

...

The weather seemed to be taunting them. As exams loomed closer the temperature outside soared, the sun shining high in the sky. All they could do was stare enviously out the window as they poured over notes and textbooks.

Ebony glanced up at Neville who was sat with his fingers on his temples, frowning at the book in front of him. He'd been in a weird mood all day, unusually quiet and not his cheerful self in the slightest.

"Neville." He didn't respond. "Oi." Ebony waved her hand but he still didn't react. It was only when she smacked her hand down on the page he was reading that he looked up.

"What do you want?" He snapped. Ebony was taken aback by his tone.

"You alright?" She asked, her forehead creasing. "You seem...stressed."

"Oh, I wonder why?" Neville stood up, scooping his books into his arms and stormed off up the stairs to his dorm. Ebony sat and watched him, her mouth hanging open.

That was not like Neville at all. He was usually always calm, rarely raised his voice, least of all at her. He didn't seem like himself, not one bit.

Ebony decided to give him a few minutes before heading up after him.

...

"Neville?" She said, tentatively pushing the door open. "I'm sorry."

It took her a minute to find him. At first, the dorm seemed empty but as she walked over to his bed she saw a tuft of brown hair sticking up from the other side.

Neville had his knees drawn up to his chest, his books discarded in a pile next to him. His hands were in fists clenched on top of his knees. As Ebony got nearer she could see the clear tear tracks down his cheeks.

"Hey," she said softly as she knelt in front of him. His face was crumpled and his breathing was becoming rapid. "Hey," she said again more firmly, placing her hands on top of his fists. "Look at me."

Neville looked up at her with bleary eyes. "I'm going to fail everything." He choked, screwing his face up as more tears poured down his face. "I'm going to fail and then Gran is going to be so disappointed and I will have let my parents down -" He was now gasping for air, "-Again."

Ebony's chest tightened as she moved her hands up to his shoulders. She had never seen him like this and she hoped that she never would again.

"Look at me," she repeated, meeting his eyes. She was fully aware that she was making all of this up as she went along but it didn't matter. She had to help him somehow. "Breathe with me, Neville."

"I can't." He spluttered his face flushing deep red. She squeezed his shoulders.

"Yes, you can. Now come on," she inhaled deeply. "And out." Neville copied, his breathing still a little jittery. "Good." Ebony gave him a reassuring smile. "Just keep doing that."

She wasn't sure how long they sat there breathing slowly but eventually, Neville calmed down and his face slowly turned from crimson to light pink. Ebony crawled over to be beside him and threw an arm around his shoulder.

"It'll all be fine," she said, rubbing her thumb up and down his arm. "You can only do your best." He turned his face to her, still looking slightly forlorn. "Whatever happens." She smiled at him. "I'll be proud of you."

Neville flung both his arms around her neck and buried his face into her shoulder.

"You're the best, " he mumbled into her shirt.

Ebony just held on tight.

...

"Reminder that your practical exam is in a couple of weeks," Professor Lupin said as he cleaned off the blackboard, "and it will cover pretty much everything we have looked at this year."

"Pretty much everything?"

"Well I can't exactly get you to fight off a vampire for your exam Seamus, so yes," he chuckled, "Pretty much everything."

There were a couple of groans which faded into chatter as the class packed up.

"I am so not looking forward to this exam," Neville said, looking pale. Ebony just smiled at him.

"Honestly I'd be concerned if you were looking forward to doing an exam."

"That's true."

As the bell went for lunch everyone filed out of the room but Ebony hung back. "I just want to ask something about the exam," she said, "I'll see you down in the Hall in a bit."

Neville gave her a grin and followed everyone else out of the door, narrowly missing walking into the door frame.

Ebony edged over to the front of the room where Lupin was still clearing up.

"Ebony," he said, glancing at her, "How may I be of assistance?"

"Umm," she said, twisting her hair in her fingers, "I know that you can't tell me what will be in the exam but I'm worried that..." Ebony was not good with words. "I'm worried that if there is a Boggart involved then I will not be able to beat it." She felt herself blushing.

"Ah, I see." Professor Lupin stopped what he was doing and studied her for a moment, perching on the edge of his desk.

"Well," he said, folding his arms, "you are correct in that I obviously cannot tell you what will be in the exam. However," he smiled softly. "I think that you are more than capable of defeating a Boggart."

"Really?"

"No need to sound so surprised," he said and she blushed again, "I think that the main issue the first time is that it caught you off guard but if you were to do it again you would know what is coming."

"Right."

"What you now have to think about is why your Boggart is what it is and try to rationalise that in your mind. Remember that it is not real, it is only a representation of your fear."

Ebony had absolutely no idea how to do this or why Professor Lupin seemed to have so much faith in her but it felt oddly reassuring.

"Thank you, Professor."

"No problem," he said, returning to his clearing up, "it's what I'm here for."

...

"This is pointless," Neville said as he scrunched up his potions essay and lobbed it across the dorm. The common room was far to busy so he and Ebony had retreated upstairs. They were sat between Neville's and Seamus' beds, parchment and books spread all over the floor. "Even if I know what I'm doing I'll never be able to do well with Snape breathing down my neck the whole time."

"I don't need to worry about that because I just never know what I'm doing."

Neville flopped his head back against his bed. "Why are we both so stupid?"

Ebony reached behind her to grab a pillow and lobbed it at his head. Neville managed to duck just in time. "Speak for yourself."

"At least if we fail, we'll do it together," he said with a grin.

Ebony gave a dry laugh, "I can't fail, they'd kill me." Neville's smile faltered.

"What will they do? If you do?" She just looked away from him. "Ebony?"

She shook her head, "I don't want to find out." She tried to make it sound light-hearted but found that her voice came out far more grim than she intended.

"Then you won't," Neville said and his grin returned to his face. He picked up the textbook and cleared his throat. "How to make a confusing concoction..."

Ebony sat with her head leant against the bed frame and listened to Neville read out the instructions as a smile crept onto her lips. She could listen to him read the fucking dictionary.

How was it that her life was filled with darkness that constantly tried to swallow her up, yet this boy in front of her somehow managed to keep it all at bay?


	20. Third Year - 20

**Authors note: And here we have it - the end of third year!**

**I want to say thank you to anyone who has made it this far, all your reads, kudos and comments genuinely mean the world to me. I really hope that you'll continue to follow this story.**

**The next section - fourth year- will be a little shorter than this one I think (while I have a vague notion of where this is going I am also sort of making it up as I go :)) because 1) apart from the tournament not a lot happens in Goblet of Fire and 2) I'm just not a huge fan of book 4 in all honesty.**

**But anyway enough rambling from me!**

**As always - stay safe and keep smiling xx**

**P.s This is a longer chapter because I got carried away :)**

Exam week finally arrived and soon every corner of the castle was full of students with their noses in books trying to cram in some last-minute revision.

Transfiguration was the third year's first exam and they all emerged from the classroom muttering to one another about their attempts at turning a teapot into a tortoise.

"I think mine ended up looking more like a turtle," Hermione complained.

"At least yours didn't still breath steam," Ron huffed.

Neville slumped his shoulders. "Mine still had a handle."

Ebony gave him a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry, mine was still blue and white."

...

They then moved onto Charms in which they had to perform the cheering charms on each other. Ebony managed to make Neville double over with laughter but his gave her a stitch and made her eyes water, she was still in fits of giggles when they left the classroom.

"Well," she spluttered in between giggles, "I think it's safe to say you passed."

"You think?" Neville said, looking unconvinced.

"Seriously?" she wheezed, pausing to lean against the wall. "I'm struggling to breathe, I'm laughing so much."

Neville grinned. "I do hope it wears off soon though."

"Tell me about it," she said, trying to take a deep breath only to be interrupted by more giggles.

...

Care of magical creatures was next and was by far the easiest one yet. Their task was to care for the flobberworms that they had been tending to all year. They were quite possibly the dullest creatures ever but Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence over the Hippogriff incident.

Ebony was still pissed off at Draco about that. The subject may have been rather interesting if he could've just not been a prat for five minutes.

The flobberworms were easy to care for though as all you had to do was leave them alone so they all left the exam with a spring in their step.

It was nice to know that she had definitely passed at least one exam.

...

They were gathered outside the classroom waiting for the Potions exam to start and Neville was pacing back and forth, looking pale. Ebony was tugging at a hangnail on her thumb.

"Two minutes to go, lads," Dean declared, looking at his watch, which earned him a shove from Seamus and caused several groans. Neville's face turned considerably greener and he stopped pacing. He looked at her with fear in his eyes.

"Hey," she said, gripping his shoulders, "you'll be fine. You've got this."

"I really don't."

"You're not terrible at potions okay? You just get nervous around Snape. So when he comes over, just pause and look at the instructions or something till he leaves."

"Okay. Okay, " he said, nodding to himself, "okay. I feel like I should give you advice as well."

"And what would you suggest I do to not be shit at potions?"

"Don't blow anything up?"

Ebony snorted, "works for me."

Neville gave her a half-hearted smile and took a deep breath which turned into a groan as Snape appeared at the door.

"Enter, no talking from now on."

They all filed in, giving each other a mix of reassuring and worried glances as they spread out in the room. Neville sat as close to Ebony as was allowed. He glanced over and she gave him a thumbs up.

"You may begin," Snape said as he stood at the front like a hawk eyeing its prey.

When Ebony finally handed over her finished potion Snape merely made a 'hmm' sound and scribbled something on the parchment before indicating that she should leave.

Once in the corridor, everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief which soon turned into panicked chatter as they discussed what had just happened.

"Merlin's bloody ballsack, that was a fucking shit show," Ebony moaned as Neville came over, still looking like he was about to pass out at any given moment.

"You didn't blow anything up though," he said, throwing his arm around her shoulders. Ebony suspected that this was possibly more to make up for his current lack of balance rather than affection but she appreciated it all the same.

"I didn't," she said, "but it was supposed to be purple and mine was fucking neon green!"

"Mine was blue."

"That's pretty close honestly."

...

Astronomy and History of Magic were next and sort of went past without too much bother. Ebony rather enjoyed Astronomy even though she wasn't great at it and History of Magic was purely about how many facts about witch hunts and goblin wars you could cram into your head.

Herbology was on Wednesday and the sun had decided to come out which meant that they were all being boiled alive in the greenhouses. Still, Ebony liked seeing Neville in his element. He had been far less of a nervous wreck that morning than he had been all week.

Two hours later they both emerged from the greenhouse thoroughly sunburned.

"That was actually alright," Neville said, wiping soil from his forehead.

"Yeah," Ebony agreed, digging dirt out from her fingernails, "I told you could do it with your eyes closed. Just two more to go now."

Neville turned up his nose, "Can I not just do that one again?"

Ebony just grinned and shook her head.

...

They had never done a practical exam for DADA before and it turned out to be an obstacle out on the grounds

Ebony was both rather excited and terrified.

"I will set you off one at a time," Lupin said, "Remember to stay focused. Good luck."

They all stood in line, anxiously waiting their turn. Neville was in front of her with his sleeves rolled up, looking scared but far more confident than he had for previous exams.

Ebony watched him run off and then she moved to the front of the queue.

"Off you go Ebony."

She took a deep breath and started off towards the pond in front of her. It turned out to contain a Grindylow which nipped at her ankles. Then there were Red Caps, a marsh full of Hinkypunk's and, finally, an old trunk.

Ebony climbed into the trunk, the end of her wand lit and held out in front of her

'Come on,' she thought, 'nearly done.' This exam had gone the best out of the ones she'd done so far and she didn't want to mess it up now.

The air around her seemed to shake and move as if it were breathing. Ebony swallowed and gripped her wand tightly in her hand.

_Bloodtraitor_.

Her mother's shrill voice echoed around her and Ebony looked up to see both her parents looming above her. This time her father's belt was in his hand.

A Boggart.

_Disappointment_.

_Waste of space._

Ebony swallowed. 'They can't hurt you, they're not real. You're scared they'll hurt you but they aren't really there.'

_How about I teach you a little lesson?_

She needed to laugh. How could she make them funny?

Her wand arm was trembling.

_Such a pathetic little coward_

Her face burned. Maybe she couldn't do this.

_Why would anyone want you?_

She took a shaky breath. Neville wants me, he's my best friend.

Her father smacked the belt against his hand.

Ebony's heart was hammering in her chest. Neville. That's it. She shut her eyes for a minute and pictured what Neville had done to Snape the first time.

"Riddikulus," she said firmly but nothing happened. Her parents moved closer.

'Breathe Ebony. You can do this.'

"RIDDIKULUS!" She yelled with her wand straight out in front of her.

The next thing she knew, both her parents were dressed in a long green dress, her mother had a hat with a stuffed vulture and her father's belt had been replaced with a bright red handbag.

Ebony let out a peal of nervous laughter before clambering out of the trunk.

She was met with a proud smile from Professor Lupin.

"Well done," he said, ticking something on his clipboard before giving her a pat on the shoulder, "knew you had it in you."

Ebony grinned at him and stumbled over to where Neville was waiting. Her legs wobbled and she felt rather dizzy but she beamed all the same.

"How did you do?" He asked, pulling her down onto the grass beside him.

"I did it. The Boggart. I did it." Her voice had an air of disbelief. She still wasn't quite sure how the hell she had managed it. But she did. She'd fucking done it.

"OH MY GOSH!." Neville flung himself at her, swinging her back and forth in his arms. "I'm so proud of you I could cry!"

Ebony gave a shaky laugh which was muffled by Neville's shirt. "Please don't."

...

Ebony left the ancient runes classroom with Hermione who was muttering away about the various mistakes she'd made.

"I know I mistranslated question four, it seems so simple now."

Personally, Ebony thought she'd be lucky if she'd translated even one of the questions correctly.

"I'm sure you did brilliantly as always," she said, offering Hermione a reassuring smile. She let out a breath a seemed to calm down a little.

"I'm sure you did just as well." Ebony resisted the urge to burst out laughing.

"I guess miracles can happen."

...

"If all that stress was for third-year exams, I never want to do OWL's," Neville said as he flopped back into the grass.

The two of them were lying on the grounds near the greenhouses. It was fairly empty as most of the school had taken full advantage of a Hogsmeade weekend at the end of exams, Neville was still barred from going so the two of them were just hanging out.

"Agreed."

"You two look like you could use some sugar."

Ebony sat up to see Seamus and Dean approaching them with a bag of Honeydukes sweets. Neville sat up as well.

"What are you two doing here?"

"Well," Dean said, taking a seat next to them, "we couldn't let you be left out of the end of term celebrations now could we?"

"That," Seamus said, plonking himself down and emptying the bag of sweets onto the ground, "and Hogsmeade is so fucking busy, Jesus Christ."

"For a second there Seamus," Neville said, "I thought you had come to join us because you appreciated our company."

"Don't flatter yourself, Longbottom." But he grinned nonetheless.

"There is some crazy chatter going round though," Dean said.

"What do you mean?"

"Professor Lupin's leaving."

"What!?" Ebony and Neville both cried.

"Turns out he was a werewolf, Snape told all the Slytherins this morning."

"I don't see why anyone would care, he's by far the best teacher we've had," Dean replied.

"I don't care," Neville mumbled, frowning at the idea of losing his favourite professor.

Ebony didn't know how to feel. Everything she had been taught about werewolves was that they were vile and vicious monsters that should be killed but it was hard to think that about Professor Lupin. Dean was right, he was by far the best teacher that they had had. He was so kind and friendly that the idea of him turning into a monster once a month seemed impossible.

"Can't believe he's leaving," she said

"Well as much as we don't care," Seamus said, "I imagine lots of parents will. I guess he doesn't want to be here when the complaints hit."

"I propose," Dean announced, hold a chocolate frog in the air, " that we enjoy this feast in honour of Professor Lupin, the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had."

The rest of them scrambled for a chocolate frog and held them in the air.

"To Professor Lupin!"

Then they tucked in and soon Neville had smoke coming out of his ears, Dean had given himself a pigs nose and both Seamus and Ebony were gagging after some rather unpleasant Bertie Bott's every flavour Beans.

"Why," she said, spitting the remnants of the sweet onto the ground, "would someone make a mouldy bacon flavoured sweet?"

"Count yourself lucky, I got overflowing bin flavour."

Dean and Neville both laughed.

"That's why I don't trust wizard sweets," Dean said, his nose now returned to normal, "what's wrong with just a Dip Dap and some Jammy Dodgers?"

"I have no idea what you are on about," Neville said. Seamus pulled him into a headlock and ruffled his hair.

"You never do."

"Get off me!"

Ebony just laughed and rose to her feet. "I'm going to pee, I'll be right back."

"No, don't leave me with them Eb," Neville cried, trying to wriggle out of Seamus' grip.

"Ha, your knight in shining armour has abandoned you."

Ebony merely rolled her eyes as she walked away, watching the three of them start to wrestle with each other.

She was just nearing the entrance gate when she almost collided with Professor Lupin who had his tattered trunk in one hand and an empty Grindylow tank in the other.

"Oops, sorry Professor,"

"That's quite alright Ebony." He gave her a small sad smile. "And it's not 'Professor' anymore."

"Yeah, we erm... We heard about that."

"I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did, in all honesty."

"None of us care by the way," she said, " We all still agree that you are the best teacher we've had."

He gave a soft chuckle, "That's very nice of you."

"Oh, and thank you, Professor," she said, blushing a little, "for everything."

He gave a sort of sad smile. "It's been a pleasure teaching you," he paused a moment before adding, "Remember Ebony," he said, "the bravest thing you can do is ask for help."

And with that, he gave her a nod of his head and carried on walking down the hill.

Ebony watched him for a moment before continuing inside as his words set in.

She knew that as much as she tried to convince herself that she was fine on her own, a little help now and again probably wouldn't hurt. But it wasn't that easy. Ebony prided herself on being a Gryffindor but she wasn't that brave. At least not yet.

She was fine on her own. At least for now.

...

Remus leant his head against the side of the carriage.

He had never imagined that he would've lasted so long in the position but the reality that it had now come to an end still hurt. It meant he was back to endless days spent trying to find work of any kind, his search now made even harder by the fact that his condition was now public knowledge.

He had hoped that Snape had grown up a little since their school days but apparently not. Though Remus was grateful to him for brewing the Wolfsbane potion, he now resented the man far more than he thought possible.

But at the same time, Remus knew that he had simply sped up the inevitable - that the Wizarding world would find out about him soon enough.

The only comforting thought was Sirius.

Sirius was innocent and he had escaped the clutches of the ministry yet again.

Remus almost had a small part of his life back, a part he thought he had lost forever.

Maybe things would be okay after all.

...

There were a million rumours flying around about what had happened with Sirius Black and his daring escape but all Ebony cared about was the fact that he had got away. Again.

She desperately wanted to tell Neville what she knew but she thought that she should keep it to herself. Apart from the fact that she had absolutely no idea how to casually bring it up in conversation and that she had no evidence that he was innocent other than a feeling in her gut, she thought that the fewer people who knew the better. She didn't want to put him in any more danger than he was already.

They both had a good laugh at Draco though. He was in a right grump about the fact that Buckbeak had managed to escape as well which everyone else found highly amusing. Ebony found it hilarious that his pride had been so badly wounded by a fucking Hippogriff.

...

They received their exams results at dinner on the last day of term.

"Look, look!" Neville cried whilst repeatedly tapping her arm. "I got near top marks in Herbology!"

"Well done!" She said with a grin as she looked over at his results which turned into a grimace as she read hers.

They weren't great but they also weren't terrible. It just made her parents' reactions even more unclear.

She'd managed to get high marks in DADA and Care of Magical Creatures. She'd gotten pretty good in Herbology as well - just a little less than Neville. Most of her other subjects were around the middle mark, with the exception of History of Magic which was a scraped pass. However, she'd also failed Potions and Ancient Runes which she knew was far from good.

It was going to be a fun conversation to go home to.

"How'd you do?"

Ebony slapped a smile on her face and hastily shoved the parchment into the pocket of her robes.

"Fine," she said, "they're... fine, yeah fine."

Neville just sighed. "And I'm supposed to believe that am I?"

Ebony looked at him and then groaned, putting her head in her hands. She looked up when she felt the weight of his arm across her shoulders. "What am I supposed to do?"

He squeezed her shoulders and leant his head on top on hers.

"You tried your best, surely they'll understand?"

It was almost laughable how much Neville underestimated how completely not understanding her parents were.

All she did was sigh.

...

Ebony was lying on the floor of the common room by the fire. The pit of dread about going home had settled firmly in her stomach and she couldn't even be bothered to try to sleep. Neville was also once again out for the count. She looked up as she heard footsteps come towards her and saw the familiar blur of orange as Ginny lay down next to her.

"Well hello there," Ginny said, lying on her front and propping herself up on her elbows.

"Hello again," Ebony replied with a smile.

"Eventful end to a year wouldn't you say? Murderer getting away for like the third time."

Ebony chuckled, " And losing yet another Defense teacher."

"I still can't quite believe that Professor Lupin turned out to be a werewolf."

"Me either, he just seemed like the last person I'd expect." Ebony said, "he was so...kind."

"Just because he's a werewolf doesn't mean that he can't be a good person." Ebony studied her for a moment.

"You're very good at seeing the best in people you know that."

"Thanks," Ginny sighed, "I think it's got a lot to do with the Chamber of Secrets stuff that happened."

"What actually did happen?" She asked hesitantly before swiftly adding, "if you don't mind."

"To put it bluntly - I got possessed by you know who."

"Fucking shit Ginny."

"I'd somehow gotten ahold of his old diary which slowly took over my body." She said a little too casually, "then I almost died because of it and Harry came to save me."

"And you survived that?" Ebony couldn't quite believe it. "That's insane." Ginny smiled gratefully.

"I guess that's partly why I don't like to judge people based on the bad parts of them, I mean I literally had one of the darkest wizards inside my head and I like to think that I'm still a good person."

"You are." Ebony gave her a reassuring smile.

The crackling of the fire filled the peaceful silence between them.

"You okay?" Ginny asked after a few minutes, "I can see the cogs turning again."

"Yeah," Ebony sighed softly, "just not looking forward to going home."

"Nothing's better than Hogwarts."

"You can say that again."

"Still, it's nice to see my family again, even if it is a bit hectic."

"How many brothers do you have altogether?"

"Six."

"Wow."

"It has its ups and downs. And even though Bill and Charlie don't live at home anymore my house is still very very busy," she said, "do you have any siblings?"

"I wish," Ebony said as she shook her head. "No, it's just me and my parents."

"Doesn't that get a bit lonely?"

"Yeah it does," she sighed, "Just me and a big old empty house. And my parents don't let me write to anyone either, well they probably would if I had any friends that they would deem 'acceptable'."

"You don't have anyone to talk to? No one at all?"

"Me and Draco used to be pretty close before Hogwarts so it wasn't too bad but we don't really see much of each other anymore."

"Well, you are more than welcome to come round to the chaos that is my house."

"Really? We've spoken like a handful of times."

"Yes, but talking at three in the morning is very different than during the day. I'm sorry to say that we have formed a bond that you are now trapped in."

They both giggled and Ginny moved to lay her head on Ebony's stomach.

"Besides, there's something about you Ebony Lestrange that I can't quite put my finger on. But I like it."

Ginny's words gave her a warm feeling in her chest and she was unable to stop the grin that spread across her face.

"Can you tell me what it's like?" Ebony asked, "Your family?" Ginny turned her head.

"Really?" Ebony just nodded.

"Well," she said, settling back to staring at the ceiling, "There's my oldest brother, Bill. He's really cool, he works as a curse breaker..."

Ebony just closed her eyes and listened to Ginny talk about her family. Her older brothers' super exciting jobs, the twins jokes, her mum's baking, her dad's fascination with muggles. She listened to the tales of Ginny breaking into the family broom shed and the time that the twins almost threw Percy off the roof.

Ebony wondered what it was like, to have a family like that. To have a house so full of joy and laughter. And love.

It sounded so warm and cosy and she could almost picture it as Ginny said that she could see the sunset over the hills from her bedroom window and that they would spend evenings squished onto two sofas by the fire.

Ebony only wished that she would be able to take up Ginny's invitation of a visit but it would never happen. She didn't even want to imagine what would happen if she mentioned the word 'Weasley' in her house, especially if it wasn't followed by the words 'bloodtraitors' or 'muggle loving filth.'

...

Ebony and Neville were just sitting down as the compartment door opened. Ginny stood on the doorway with a blonde-haired girl.

"Hey,"

"Hi, Ginny."

"This is Luna," she said, indicating to the girl beside her. Luna had a sort of dreamy look about her. She smiled at Ebony. "Can we come sit with you? Everywhere else is full."

"Sure!" Ebony shuffled up to the window and Ginny sat next to her and Luna sat opposite them, next to Neville. He gave her a very awkward smile and then he turned to Ginny.

"Oh, you're Ron's little sister aren't you?" Ginny nodded. "How do you two know each other then?" Neville asked looking between the two of them.

"We have shared many a late-night chat," Ginny replied, stretching her legs onto the opposite seat. "Turns out we both suck at sleeping."

"Don't look like that Neville," Ebony said at Neville's small frown, "I always try to wake you up first but you sleep like a log." He gave a small grin.

"Anyone fancy a game of exploding snap?" Luna asked, pulling a pack of cards out of her robes.

"Yes please!"

...

When they pulled into Kings Cross, Ebony thought that she was going to be sick. The journey had been lovely - Luna was strange but in a sort of cool way and Ginny was, well, Ginny. But as muggle London started to appear outside the window, Ebony's stomach tied itself in knots.

They all grabbed their trunks and rucksacks. Luna gave them a smile and a wave and skipped out of the compartment.

"See you next year then!" Ginny said, flashing then a smile before following Luna.

Ebony turned to Neville, feeling suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to cry.

"Guess I'll see you in 8 weeks then," she said, smiling weakly.

He said nothing but just pulled her into his chest. "I'm going to miss you."

"Me too," she mumbled into his chest. She took a deep breath, taking in the scent of his jumper as if trying to commit it to memory.

Ebony pulled away, knowing that if she hung on any longer she may never let go. She gave him a brave smile. "I'll be fine."

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" He said a pitiful look on his face.

"Both?"

Neville bit his lip, something he always did when trying not to cry. "You go first this time."

Ebony picked up her trunk and gave him one last look before slipping out of the compartment and off the train.

...

Once on the platform, she scanned around for Draco but he was nowhere to be found. She was just about to start wandering around when a voice made her blood run cold.

"Ebony!" Rodolphus' voice echoed around the station, causing many people to look up.

Ebony looked over the crowd and soon enough she met the cool stare of her father. Her parents hadn't come to the station with her since first year. Though her father was unusually alone.

She obediently shuffled towards him, ignoring the stares of various students, resisting the urge to have one last glance back at Neville.

"Hello Father, what a-" she hesitated, " - a nice surprise." Not.

"Yes well your Mother was driving me up the wall, I needed out the house."

Well, that wasn't a great start, her parents were seemingly in a bad mood and she hadn't even got home yet.

He held his hand out towards her, "Report, now."

She swallowed. Ebony had hoped that perhaps they would've forgotten about her results but she had no such luck. She reluctantly brought the roll of parchment out of her robe pocket and placed it in his open hand. She didn't meet his eye as he opened it. She heard him grunt then he lifted her chin up with a single finger.

"We'll discuss this further when we get home." He jerked his head toward the direction of the station Floo. Ebony lifted her trunk and started walking, trying to ignore the rising lump in her throat.

She passed Ginny and her family and Ginny shot her a small smile but Ebony felt her father's hand on the back of her neck steering her forward so she just looked down.

That's when she felt three short buzzes against her chest and she fought the urge to smile.

She wasn't going to be alone this summer.


	21. Fourth Year - 1

**Author note: First chapter of fourth year! Hope you enjoy - well as much as you can (sorry :))**

**I'm not sure how frequent the next few updates will be as I'm finally going back to school in a week for the first time in 5 MONTHS (yay?). Anyway it'll probably take a little while to settle back into things but I'll see how it goes.**

**Also I thought I'd share my Pinterest boards for Ebony and Neville. I use them to keep me inspired and add to them when I have writer's block so feel free to check them out.**

**Ebony: /6dIpVse**

**Neville: /7KbsbfQ**

**Have a lovely day/night and keep smiling you amazing humans xx**

Bellatrix was slouched in an armchair when Ebony climbed out of the fireplace. Her mother made no effort to acknowledge her arrival.

Her father gave her a less than gentle shove as he followed out from the fireplace.

"Maxwell, take the trunk up to Ebony's room," he barked. The house-elf gave a low bow and disappeared with her trunk.

Ebony swallowed and shifted from one foot to another. She was hoping to just hide up in her room but it didn't look like that was happening anytime soon. She watched as Rodolphus pulled the parchment out from his waistcoat pocket and shoved it under his wife's nose.

Her mother snatched it from him, offering him a scowl in the process. She unrolled it and snorted at its contents. "Clearly she gets her brains from you."

Rodolphus' expression remained unchanged as he took the parchment back and turned towards Ebony, who was still stood awkwardly in the middle of the room.

"You really think that this is good enough?" Her father slammed the paper down onto the coffee table making Ebony jump.

"I tried, I really did try." Ebony didn't like the way her voice was wobbling, the last thing she needed was to burst into tears.

"Not well enough though clearly," her mother said, rising from the armchair. She stood in front of Ebony, giving her a cold stare. Ebony didn't know where to look.

"They were really hard," she said, trying not to sound whiny. "I'm no Hermione," she added under her breath but clearly loud enough for her father to hear.

"Who?"

"The top in our year." Ebony could tell where this conversation was going to go and she instantly regretted that words leaving her mouth.

"I don't know anyone by that name," Rodolphus said, frowning, "last name?"

Oh shit. She should not have mentioned her. Ebony swallowed. "Granger," she mumbled.

"Funny, I don't recognise that name, can't be a pureblood," her father said with a sneer, " Unless you're trying to tell me that you're dumber than a mudblood?"

When she didn't respond, Bellatrix sent her stumbling sideways with a backhanded slap across the face, her wedding ring slicing Ebony's chin.

Ebony clung onto the edge of a chair to stop herself falling to the floor. Blood dribbled off her face.

"Do you know how much of an embarrassment you are for me, for us?" her mother said, approaching Ebony again. "For everyone to know that you associate with bloodtraitors and mudbloods and Merlin knows what other filth they have in that school."

Rodolphus was leaning against the mantelpiece, smoking his pipe. He merely looked bored.

"And, to top it off, you're fucking useless and thicker than a brick wall."

Ebony bit her lip, trying to ignore the stinging of her chin and her mother's words.

"Well," Bellatrix drew her wand out from her robes. "You did get a fair warning of the consequences of being a dumb piece of shit didn't you?"

Ebony's bottom lip trembled and she shook her head. "Mother, please..."

"Aww," she said with a false sweetness to her voice. "Is little Ebbie scared"

Hearing the nickname that usually came from Neville made her chest burn with anger. She screwed her face into a scowl.

Her mother merely laughed. "Don't make that face," she spat, "it makes you look like your father."

"I heard that."

Bellatrix ignored him and prodded Ebony in the chest with her wand. "I like it when you beg." Ebony watched the all too familiar wildness fill her mother's eyes, the wicked smile spread on her lips. "Do it again."

Ebony clenched her jaw. She knew what was coming and that there was no way to stop it. "No." She still had her pride, she wouldn't give them what they wanted.

Bellatrix stuck out her bottom lip, "Shame, it's always more fun that way," she shrugged, "never mind,"

She raised her wand and Ebony couldn't help but flinch.

"Crucio."

A scream tore through her throat as Ebony crumpled to the floor. Her body convulsed and tears streamed involuntarily from her eyes.

And then the pain stopped as quickly as it came.

She looked up with blurry vision at her mother's silhouette above her.

"Had enough yet?" Ebony couldn't force any words from her throat. "Guess not."

Bellatrix raised her wand once again and Ebony's body jolted. Every inch of her was on fire. All her bones were breaking at once. A million knives ripped through her flesh.

Ebony wasn't sure how long it had gone on for but she had somehow ended up slumped against the wall. She could vaguely hear her mother laughing somewhere out in the hall.

Her father crouched in front of her and just shook his head.

"When will you just do what is asked of you?"

She just blinked back at him, breathing heavily. Her vision was slipping in and out of focus. Her throat was dry and scratchy.

Even if she could speak, she had nothing to say.

Rodolphus sighed and rose to his feet.

"You brought this upon yourself," he said, striding out of the room.

Ebony watched him leave as a single tear trailed down her cheek.

...

Having eventually dragged herself upstairs, Ebony lay curled up on her bed, her body still on fire.

The only good thing to come out of the argument was that it had seemingly put her parents in a rather good mood so there was no screaming match to be heard downstairs. It appeared that the only person that Bellatrix and Rodolphus hated more than each other, was their daughter.

She watched as the sunset behind the trees out her window and desperately wished she could be anywhere else. It was barely ten o clock on her first day home and Ebony already wanted to go back to Hogwarts. Not even that, she just wanted a friend. She wanted to talk to Ginny.

She wanted Neville.

Ebony was soon snapped out of her daze by tapping on the window. She blinked and realised that there was an owl on her windowsill. Frowning, she heaved herself out of bed, pausing for a moment as her body protested the movement. With a glance back at her door she opened the window and let the small brown owl in. It fluttered around before landing on her bed and sticking its leg out.

Who could've written to her? Ginny and Neville both knew that she wasn't allowed letters and Draco hadn't written to her in ages. She untied the letter from the owl's leg, which then gave a squawk and flew back out the window.

"Don't hang around or anything," she muttered, followed by a couple of coughs.

The parchment was battered and dirty and honestly looked like it had been dug out of a bin. She unrolled it.

_Ebony,_

_I was hoping to see you again before the end of the year but then, as I'm sure you heard, some shit happened which I can't really get into right now because it's long and complicated. Maybe I'll explain it to you one day. What's important is that I got away and I'm sure that no one will be able to find me._

_Thanks for the food parcels throughout the year - well I presume it was you anyway._

_I know that after the freedom of Hogwarts going home can be rough, especially if your parents are complete psychos. Everything that comes out of their mouths is utter rubbish, try to ignore it. I know that's hard but once their words get under your skin, they stay there._

_If you need anything- anything at all - let me know. I'm always up for a good old family reunion_

_I'm here kiddo, us black sheep have got to stick together._

_S_

_P.s I hope this letter doesn't get you in bother._

_P.p.s Give old Bella a hex from me_.

Ebony couldn't help but smile as she folded the letter. It was nice to have someone understand ( even if that someone was an escaped convict ) what she was going through without having to explain it.

She dug around in her trunk, wincing as her muscles burned, and pulled out the box Draco had got for her birthday and set it on top of her drawers. This letter was definitely something she needed to hide.

She opened it up and stuck the letter in and shut the lid. The clasp didn't close and Ebony remembered that she needed to make a password for it.

She thought for a moment, trying to decide on something that would be difficult to guess. Then she remembered one of the muggle sweets that Dean had mentioned, "Jammy Dodgers.". She watched as the clasp wove itself closed. Ebony smiled. She had no idea what a Jammy Dodger was but it sounded rather tasty and her parents would never figure it out.

As Ebony crawled beneath the covers on her bed, exhausted from the effort of standing, she felt the usual three pulses against her chest.

She sighed happily.

"Miss you already," she mumbled, clutching the necklace in her hand.

And she squeezed it back.

...

"EBONY!"

She looked up from the charms essay that she was finishing. She'd managed to make it three weeks without another major incident, what the hell had she done now?

"GET DOWN HERE!"

Ebony sighed and discarded her work. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't good.

As she walked down the stairs she found both her parents stood in the hall wearing travelling cloaks. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't this.

Ebony slowed as she reached the bottom and leant against the bannister, picking at the almost healed scab on her chin - probably the reason it wasn't healed yet - looking slightly confused.

"Your mother and I are going out," Rodolphus said, fixing the cuff of his shirt, "you can organise your own dinner."

Ebony was taken aback. Her parents never really went anywhere, only to annual family events and parties which she was dragged along to. "Where are you going?" She asked cautiously.

"None of your fucking business," Bellatrix replied, already halfway out the door. Rodolphus followed suit, briefly glancing back at his daughter.

"We'll be back late," he called over his shoulder, "don't burn the house down."

And with that, the door slammed behind them and Ebony heard two distinct cracks.

The house fell peacefully silent.

...

Ebony couldn't remember the last time that she had had the house to herself but she was damn well going to enjoy it.

She had meatballs and spaghetti for dinner which she ate in peace while reading a book. It was nice to not have to deal with the usual tension that came with meal times.

After she ate, Ebony decided to have a snoop around. It was surprising how much of the house that she hadn't been in considering that she'd lived in it for fourteen years but most of her time was spent hiding in her room. She was usually in enough trouble that she didn't feel the need to add to it by being anywhere she wasn't supposed to be.

She got bored with the ground floor rather quickly, it was just a selection of sitting rooms, the dining room and two bathrooms, so she headed upstairs. Ebony couldn't quite get her head around how less foreboding the house seemed when it was just her and a couple of house-elves. It was almost nice.

She walked past her room and stuck her head in the guest room next to it. It was fairly empty, just a bed and a nightstand either side of it.

Something caught her eye, however. The double bed looked as though it had been recently slept in. Ebony frowned. No one had come to stay for a while.

Then it dawned on her that perhaps her parents were getting on even worse than she thought.

Her parents room, or whoever actually slept in it, was boringly tidy and Ebony didn't want to risk poking around in it.

The next room she looked into was her father's study. Ebony had only been in it a couple of times and none of them had ended well. The last time she'd been in it was when she'd first got home in her first year.

She wandered over to the giant bookshelf which went all along the wall and all the way up to the high ceiling. Ebony ran her fingers over the spines, some of the titles she saw were probably not even appropriate enough to be in the restricted section at Hogwarts.

The desk at the other end of the room was covered in piles of paper and books. Ebony didn't actually know what her father did all day but it seemed to involve a lot of paper.

She looked at the couple of photo frames that sat on the desk. There was one of her father and his younger brother, Rabastan. Another was of her father and a group of his friends at Hogwarts. It was the third one that caught her eye. It was tucked behind the other two but she could still see it.

It was her father holding a baby, a smile on his usually stern face.

Ebony frowned and reached for it, knocking a pile of papers off her father's desk as she did so. Muttering at herself, she bent down to scoop them up. They were mainly boring official things except for one. It was an unsealed envelope with a letter neatly folded inside it. The address was to her Uncle Rabastan, clearly, her father hadn't got around to sending it yet. Ebony carefully slid it out. It read:

_Rab,_

_I find it ridiculous that I am even saying this once._

_You claim it is none of my business what you do with your life. I see that this is true and in any other circumstance, I would gladly leave you to sleep around with anyone that you wish and would rather not know. _

_But, whether anyone involved likes it or not, Bella is my wife and I would prefer it if you would refrain from interfering with my marriage, it fragile enough as it is._

_I will not ask again brother_.

"Gross." She muttered, slipping the letter back into the pile.

She'd had very few interactions with her uncle. Her father and his brother seemed close but they still only saw each other at formal events. Ebony had no real opinion of him - he was just like everyone else in her family.

Deciding that she had had quite enough snooping around, Ebony decided to take the chance, due to the lack of parents stopping her, to send Neville his birthday present which she hadn't managed to slip into his trunk before they left.

She scribbled a letter and tied the small box up with string. Then she stuck her head out the window and whistled as loudly as she could.

Sure enough, Malum came swooping into her room, looking angry as usual. Ebony was sure she had never seen another bird with such pure hatred in its eyes.

"Can you deliver this for me?" she said, holding the package and letter out to him. The owl seemed to hesitate before reluctantly offering up his leg. Ebony quickly attached the delivery to it, receiving several pecks on the hand in the process.

"And be quick," she muttered to the owl as it swooped off. "If I get in trouble because of that ruddy bird..."

Ebony flopped onto her bed. She knew that soon enough her parents would be home and the house would once again feel gloomy and be filled with tension you could slice with a knife.

But for the next few hours, she could just breathe, she could just exist and there was no threat, no crashes, no shouting.

And that was enough.

...

"Neville, your great uncle is coming tomorrow and I swear to Merlin if I find any more plants hidden in this house you can sleep in the greenhouse!"

"You won't find anymore gran, I promise," Neville called over the bannister whilst making a mental note to clear out the devils snare from under the bathroom sink.

He padded back across the landing into his room where he was met with the glare of a familiar large black owl sat on his desk. There was a sudden pang in his chest. What if Ebony was in trouble?

"Errr...can I help you?" he said, edging his way towards it. The owl gave an angry hoot and stuck its leg out, attached to which was a small parcel and a letter. Neville untied it as quickly as he could.

Once it was free of the string on its leg, the owl hooted again, gave him a peck on the hand for good measure and swooped out of the open window.

Neville watched it, stunned. That was the last thing he had expected to find in his room.

Pulling out his chair, he sat down and eagerly opened the letter.

_Dear Neville,_

_First of all, I hope Malum didn't attack you too much - he has a habit of doing that._

_My parents disappeared to fuck knows where this evening which meant I have the house to myself so I took the opportunity to send you your birthday present. It's nothing compared to what you gave me but I hope that you like it._

_I hope you're having a good summer, it'll hopefully have been better than mine anyway! They didn't take my report too well but I'm still breathing and I have all my limbs so I guess it could've been worse._

_Happy birthday when it comes and I'd say don't open your present early but I mean I'm not there so do what you like._

_I miss you but it's only five weeks till we go back!_

_Ebony :)_

_P.s Don't write back please, my parents would kill me if they found out_.

Neville sighed happily as he finished reading. He hadn't quite realised how much he missed her. The line 'they didn't take my report too well,' concerned him but there wasn't much he could do. And as much as his best friend liked to keep things to herself, Neville hoped that if there was something seriously wrong she would've said.

He stood on his bed and pinned the letter up on his corkboard. Gran probably wouldn't even notice.

He sat back at his desk and looked at the package. It wasn't quite his birthday yet but Neville wasn't sure how long he could leave the box, it was far too tempting. He unwrapped it and opened it up. At the top sat a card that read: Magnifying Glass Encyclopaedia: one look and nature's information is there!. Neville frowned and pulled out the contents.

It looked like a normal small magnifying glass. Neville held it up to the pot plant on his desk and suddenly a large smile stretched across his face. The glass circle was suddenly filled with labels, identifying the plant's species, age and uses. "Brilliant!" He breathed, moving it over to the pot next to it. He could play around with it all day.

He was interrupted when Trevor hopped up onto the desk and croaked loudly.

"What?" Trevor croaked again. "You hungry?" Trevor croaked twice. Neville dug around in his bottom desk drawer and pulled out a box of crickets. He opened the lid and shoved them towards his toad. "Knock yourself out buddy."

"Neville I've told you before that toad can't understand you."

He twisted round in his chair to see Augusta stood in the doorway.

"I reckon he can," Neville replied. His grandmother sighed.

"Other children talk to people," she said, raising her eyebrows at her grandson, "surely you have friends you could talk to rather than your pet?"

"I have friends," he muttered, rather offended by what his grandmother was trying to insinuate, "it's just that the friend I want to talk to can't talk to me."

"You better not be talking about _her_." Augusta turned her nose up as she spoke.

"Her name's Ebony you know," he said, "you can say it."

"I've told you before," she said, using the tone of voice she reserved for lectures, "I don't want you hanging around with that girl, she's nothing but trouble."

"You've never met her!" Neville cried, "you don't know anything about her!"

"I know enough," she said stiffly. Augusta straightened herself up. "I meant you could write to that Dean Thomas or the Irish boy."

"Seamus."

"They seem far more reasonable friends." Neville scowled slightly but his grandmother merely tutted at him. "Keep making that face and you stay like that. Anyway, dinner will be ready in twenty minutes."

He watched her walk away and buried his face in his arms.

It wasn't fair. She had no right to tell him who he should and shouldn't talk to. Neville thought that if his grandmother actually had a conversation with Ebony she would really like her.

He knew her name scared some people but ten minutes or so in her company and any reasonable person should see that she was sweet and kind.

Why was it so hard for everyone to see what he did?

...

"What have you got there Nev?"

Neville's great uncle Algie had taken the two of them fishing for the afternoon and Neville had taken the opportunity to properly test out his present from Ebony. Currently, he was investigating muggle species of water-based plants.

He held up the magnifying glass to his great uncle. "It's enchanted so that you can see information about the different plants you look at through it."

"Impressive," Algie said, attaching some bait to his fish hook. "Where did you get that?"

"Early birthday present."

"From your Gran?"

"No, from my friend," Neville said.

Algie raised his eyebrows expectantly at his great-nephew. "Does this friend have a name?"

"She's called Ebony." He replied.

"Oooo, she." Neville blushed profusely. "You've mentioned a lot of your friends but never her."

"Gran doesn't like her." Algie chuckled.

"What's this poor girl done to upset your grandmother?"

"BecauseherlastnameisLestrangesograndoesntthinkitsright," Neville mumbled, looking at his lap.

"Didn't quite catch that lad."

"Her last name is Lestrange," he sighed, "she's sort of _their_ daughter."

"Ah," his great uncle's face fell a little.

"But she's not like them at all," Neville insisted, "she's funny and kind and smart, even though she doesn't think she is. She's got a really nice smile. And pretty eyes.." he trailed off, realising that he had very much gone off-topic. He cleared his throat. "Gran has never even spoken to her and she won't give her a chance."

"Look," Algie said, setting down his fishing rod, "Your Gran loves you very much, she just has a hard time showing it." He chuckled a little. "My sister has never been one to show affection, not even when we were children."

Neville gave him an uncertain smile.

"What I'm trying to say," he continued, "Losing your parents like that, it destroyed her, far more than she lets on. And I think that the thought of losing you too terrifies her."

"Ebony isn't going to do anything, she isn't a danger to me!"

"She may not be but you of all people know her parents are capable of terrible things," he said, an unusual seriousness on his face, "your friendship brings you far closer to them than any of us would like."

Neville opened his mouth to protest but his uncle cut him off.

"But," Algie said, a cheeky grin spreading across his face, "at the same time, it sounds like this girl means a great deal to you."

Ebony's face flashed in his mind, Her laugh, her smile, her eyes. Every time she hugged him. Every glance. Every time she told him she was proud of him.

"She does." He said finally.

"Then," The cheeky grin returned to his uncle's face. " you should stand your ground and never let her go."

Neville arched his eyebrow.

"That was some very conflicting advice."

Algie merely ruffled Neville's hair and picked up his fishing rod.


	22. Fourth Year - 2

**Author note: Sorry for the long wait but the first couple of weeks back at school have been rather hectic so updates may continue to be a bit slow.**

**should probably mention that some bits of this are directly from Harry Potter and the goblet of fire.**

**Only i would be able to write about the quidditch cup and barely mention quidditch !**

**keep smiling xx**

"We're set for a portkey at 7:30."

"In the fucking morning?"

"Obviously," Rodolphus sighed.

Ebony just looked back an forth between her parents sat at either end of the table. She had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

Her mother shot Rodolphus a disgusted look to which he simply sighed and returned to his dinner. "Just have your usual bottle of wine a little earlier darling, that way you won't care."

"Dickhead." Bellatrix muttered, a fierce scowl on her face.

Ebony was still frowning. She never liked to speak more than she had to at meals, they always came with tension due to whatever arguments had happened that day but she genuinely had no idea what was going on.

"Where are we going?" she asked quietly. Rodolphus looked up and stared at her.

"Oh, the Quidditch World Cup." Ebony tried very hard not sigh but apparently, her face gave her away. "Is there a problem?" he asked, sharply raising an eyebrow. Ebony turned her lips into a false smile.

"Nope, I love quidditch." Her parents either didn't notice or ignored the blatant sarcasm in her voice

...

Ebony was half asleep when they arrived with the portkey the next morning- an experience that she would not like to ever go through again.

Though she was definitely not looking forward to the match she had to admit that the rest of it all seemed quite exciting.

The campsite was unlike anything that Ebony had ever seen. It was bustling with wizards dressed in all kinds of ridiculous clothes - Ebony's parents had done the bare minimum of swapping out robes for smart muggles clothes. There were children running all over the place, tents of all different shapes and sizes and a strange variety of different creatures. In fact Ebony could've sworn that she'd seen a couple house elves riding camels.

Ebony had been so engrossed in the surroundings that she nearly didn't notice her parents crashing into another family.

"Oi, watch where you're going!" Even without the notable Irish accent, Ebony would've recognised the man that spoke as he was the spitting image of his son, Seamus. "Honestly you wizards seem to have less coordination than us muggle folk!"

"The fact that they even let the likes of you here is disgusting," Her mother spat, "You really think you can speak to your superiors like that?"

"What the hell did you just say to my husband?" Ebony watched as a sandy-haired woman emerged from the shamrock covered tent, swiftly followed by Seamus and Dean, whose eyes flicked between Ebony and her parents.

She desperately wanted the floor to swallow her up.

"I said-" Bellatrix stood dangerously close to Mrs Finnigan - "that your pathetic husband should watch how he speaks to his betters."

Ebony watched the woman's face burn with anger as she reached into her pocket, presumably for her wand. Seamus fixed his eyes on Ebony, with a mix of rage and confusion on his face.

Rodolphus grabbed his wife by the arm. "No need to make a fool of yourself woman, we won't spend a moment longer in the presence of such-" he turned his nose up at Mr Finnigan - "filth."

With that he half dragged Bellatrix away from them, clearly knowing that his wife couldn't be trusted not to commit homicide there and then.

Ebony cringed as her parents stormed off and she saw the stunned and angry looks on Dean, Seamus and his parents' faces. She did her best to give them an apologetic smile. "Sorry about them," she said.

They all continued to stare at her, Dean offered half a pitiful smile. Ebony gave a little nod before taking off after her parents.

...

They eventually reached a large tent near the edge of the site.

It may as well have just been house because when Ebony stepped in she almost forgot it was a tent. It had a main living area, which looked very similar to that of the one at Malfoy manor, and other rooms stemming off from it.

The Malfoys were already inside. Her parents immediately fell into conversation with Narcissa and Lucius - clearly muttering about what had just happened.

Ebony ducked into a bedroom off to the side where she found her cousin lying on one of the two beds with a book. He looked up as she came in.

"Hey," he said, sitting up, "you took your time."

"Yeah." Ebony sat next to him, scratching the back of her neck. "Ran into what my parents would refer to as, unpleasant company."

"I see."

"You been here long?"

"Thirty minutes or so."

"Draco, come on darling," Narcissa called. Ebony raised her eyebrows as he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Draco sighed.

"Father wants me to meet some of his ministry friends."

"So you're leaving me? With them?" He merely smirked.

"I think you'll survive for an hour so."

"Wouldn't bet on it." Draco rolled his eyes with a smile and left.

Ebony dumped her bag and sat for a few minutes before deciding to go explore. She ducked out of the bedroom into the main bit of the tent.

"Can I go for a walk?"

"Yeah, piss off." Her mother said from where she was lying on the sofa with a glass of wine in her hand. It was 9 o clock in the morning.

"Where's father?" She asked, noticing his absence as she glanced around.

"I don't fucking know," Bellatrix burped, "and I don't fucking care."

...

Ebony weaved in and out of various tents, slowly realising that she was most definitely going to get lost on her way back. It was just tents after tents, twist after turn and no real path. She did however manage to find the Finnigan's tent again and promptly avoided it.

She'd been walking for about ten minutes when she heard her name.

"Ebony?" She turned round to meet the freckled face of Ginny Weasley, who broke into a grin when she realised her guess had been correct.

"Hi, Ginny." The redhead pulled her into a hug.

"Merlin I've missed you," Ginny said before elbowing her. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"I only found out yesterday."

"Oh," she said and then frowned. "I thought you hated Quidditch?" Ebony laughed.

"I do, my parents have dragged me along for appearance purposes."

"How nice of them," Ginny said and then snorted. She grabbed Ebony by the arm. "Come on, you've got to meet everyone!"

"Oh, okay." Ebony allowed herself to be dragged into the nearby tent.

It was a little smaller and far more tent-like than the one she was staying in but it was cosy and inviting.

And Merlin it was loud.

She got a hug from Hermione, who was on her way to go and get water with Harry and Ron. She was just giving them a wave when she heard a shout.

"Watch out!" Ebony ducked just in time to avoid a firework shooting towards her head, followed by Fred and George.

"It's fine, just try and decapitate my friend why don't you!" Ginny shouted.

"Sorry Gin-Gin," George called over his shoulder swiftly followed by Fred, who ruffled Ebony's hair on the way past.

The action caught her very much off guard and Ebony frowned slightly, glancing after them.

She wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

"Bill, Percy and Charlie are apparating in later," Ginny said, bringing Ebony out of her thoughts.

"I still can't believe how many of you there are."

"Never a dull moment at the Burrow." Ebony couldn't help but notice the pride in Ginny's voice as she spoke.

"Dull is all there is in my house," she muttered.

"Ginny, can you go and find some wood for the fire." Ebony turned to see a short man with thinning hair the same shade of red as the rest of the Weasleys coming into the tent. He seemed puzzled for a moment as he studied her. "I don't believe we've met."

"Oh, dad," Ginny said with a grin, wrapping her arm around Ebony's shoulders, "This Ebony Lestrange."

Ebony winced a little, wishing that Ginny could've left her last name out.

"Well then Ebony," Mr Weasley said, shaking her hand with a friendly smile on his face, "lovely to meet you."

"You too, Mr Weasley," she said with a small smile. "It's been nice to meet everyone but I think I should probably get back."

"Suppose your parents will be worrying where you are?"

"Wouldn't bet on it," she said with a laugh, ignoring the uneasy smile from Ginny, "see you later Ginny."

And with one last smile, she ducked out of the tent.

...

Ginny waved her friend off and then returned to where her dad had now sat down. He looked up as she squeezed in next to him.

"Ebony Lestrange eh?" He said, "You've never mentioned her before." Ginny just shrugged.

"Only really started talking last year."

"I see." Arthur thought for a moment. "Gin," he said, leaning towards her and clasping his hands together, "Ebony seems like a very sweet and lovely girl but can you promise me something?"

"What?"

He sighed softly. "Promise me you'll be careful." Ginny furrowed her brow.

"Why would I need to be careful?"

Ginny watched her dad rub the bridge of his nose. "The Lestrange's, her parents, did some truly awful things in the war. Things they should've gone to Azkaban for but, unfortunately, they had enough money to bribe their way out."

"What things?" She asked. Arthur just shook his head and ruffled her hair.

"That's for when you're older sweetheart."

...

Ebony, as she had suspected, had a rather difficult time finding her way back to the tent. Everywhere looked the same yet vastly different at the same time. She didn't know how long she had been walking when she finally arrived back.

Her father was smoking in an armchair talking to Lucius. He looked up as she came in.

"You were a long time," he remarked.

"I got lost."

Her mother cackled in her almost conscious state in the sofa, "Of course you fucking did."

"Surprised you're still conscious," Ebony muttered.

...

Ebony had always thought that she was alright with heights but as they climbed up to the top box of the stadium she was starting doubt herself. She had made the fatal mistake of looking over the railing as they were about halfway there and it made her head spin.

"You alright?" Draco caught her elbow as she stumbled slightly on the stairs.

"Turns out I'm not a huge fan of heights."

"Quit being a baby or I'll give you a reason to be scared of heights," her mother snapped as she barged past them.

"Surprised she can still walk in a straight line," Draco said and Ebony snickered.

When they finally made it to the top they were greeted by the minister for magic, Cornelius Fudge who shook Lucius' hand very enthusiastically and then turned to her father.

"Rodolphus," he said holding out his hand, "Good to see you, haven't had a chance to thank you in person for that donation you made to the Auror department."

Rodolphus shook Fudge's hand. "It was my pleasure, always good to make sure the Law Enforcement is in top shape."

Ebony knew for a fact that this was a load of absolute rubbish and began to wonder what her parents had done that needed a donation to cover it up.

"And this must be your daughter." Ebony shook Fudge's hand, plastering a well-practised sweet smile on her face. He grinned back and looked towards her father. "Quiet little thing, you sure she's yours?"

Rodolphus laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Wonder that myself sometimes."

They were introduced to various other wizards before Fudge said, "And I dare say you must know Arthur Weasley."

Ebony watched Mr Weasley turn round, locking eyes with the two of them, as he did she felt her father's grip tighten on her shoulder. Her gaze flickered down to Ginny who shot her a subtle smile.

"Good Lord Arthur," Lucius said softly, "What did you have to sell to buy seats on the top box? Surely your house would t have fetched this much?"

In a family that prided themselves on manners and appearances, Ebony couldn't help but think that everyone was being rather rude today.

Fudge, who clearly wasn't listening, said, "Lucius has just given a very generous contribution to St Mungo's hospital and Rodolphus has made a donation to the Auror department, they are both here as my guests."

"How - how nice," Mr Weasley said, his face twisting into a very strained smile.

...

The match eventually started and it seemed that it didn't matter that it was the World Cup or that the stadium was one of the wildest places she'd ever been, the fact still stood: Ebony fucking hated Quidditch.

The match itself was even more of a blur than usual and the commentary was far less amusing than Lee Jordan's. She glanced over at Draco who was leaning forward, engrossed in the action.

Her gaze lingered over at the Weasleys for a moment and her chest ached with longing as she saw Ginny and Hermione in fits of giggles over something.

...

"Why would he catch the snitch if they were going to lose?"

Draco just laughed as he climbed into bed. "You really don't get quidditch at all do you?"

"No," she said, doing the same, "and honestly I have no interest in 'getting it'."

"Suit yourself."

Ebony stared up at the ceiling as she listened to the murmuring of their parents in the next room, feeling her eyelids start to droop.

Maybe it hadn't been so bad after all.

...

"Quick get up you two."

Ebony sat up wearily, not enjoying being woken up by Narcissa's harsh whispers.

"Mother?" Draco said, rubbing his eyes, "What's going on?"

As Ebony became more awake she began to notice the screaming coming from outside.

Narcissa grabbed both their cloaks and tossed them on their beds. "Put these on and go wait by the edge of the woods, we'll meet you there soon." She pressed a quick kiss to her son's head. "Be quick."

They both watched her leave and stared at each other in confusion.

...

The campsite was in absolute carnage when they stepped out of the tent. People were running and screaming names. There were several fires dotted around the place, thick smoke rising into the air.

"What the hell is going on?" Draco said, "Where has father and the others gone?"

"I think I know." Ebony pointed to a group of hooded figures marching through the tents with four people floating in the air above them.

"Those are the muggles that own the campsite," Draco said, "Look, the woman's upside down showing off her knickers!"

Ebony was horrified to hear that he was almost laughing. She shot him a dirty look and stomped over to the woods. He hurried to catch up with her.

"Are we to wait here?" he asked as they reached the edge of the woods. Ebony just shrugged and leant against a tree. She didn't want to talk to him right now.

They stood and watched the chaos of the campsite. Ebony felt utterly helpless as the hooded group began to make one of the children spin around in midair. She wrapped her hand tighter around her wand in her pocket.

"Ron? Where are you?"

"Over here, I tripped."

Ebony turned around to see Harry, Ron and Hermione running through the trees with the ends of their wands lit.

"Well with feet that size it's hard not to." Ebony just gave her cousin a look of, 'Really?'. He ignored her.

The trio turned in the direction of his voice.

"Oh go fuck yourself Malfoy." Ron said and Draco merely smirked.

"Language Weasley." He crosses his arms. "Well? Hadn't you better be running along, now? He said. "You don't want her being spotted, would you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hermione said defiantly. Ebony just facepalmed, could her family just not offend people for five bloody minutes?

"Granger, they're after Muggles," he said, "do you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? That would give us all a right laugh!"

"Hermione is a witch," Harry snarled.

"Have it your own way potter." Draco grinned maliciously. "They can spot mudbloods from a mile away." Ebony just grabbed his arm, desperately trying to drag him away.

"Watch your mouth!" Ron yelled. He took a step towards Draco and Ebony continued to tug on his sleeve.

"Can we please go?" She muttered. Draco just shrugged her off.

The air around them was suddenly filled with smoke and a loud boom shook the ground followed by several screams. Ebony looked around with wide eyes, trying desperately to see what had happened but the trees were too thick and it was too dark.

Draco chuckled, "scare easily don't they?" He said lazily. "Suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to - trying to save the muggles?"

"Where're your parents?" Harry snapped. "Out there wearing masks are they?"

"Well if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell, would I, Potter?"

"Let's go," Hermione said, grabbing both boys by the elbows and dragging them off.

Once the three of them left Ebony looked over at the muggles who were still floating in midair. She hated knowing that her parents were in amongst the masked crowd. Not only that, but she was also scared of what they might do. She knew better than anyone what they were capable of.

Having had enough, she turned and started to walk into the trees.

"We were supposed to wait here!"

Ebony continued further into the woods "I don't want to watch it anymore!" she called over her shoulder.

She sat down on a nearby tree stump and rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. Draco came and leant against the tree next to her.

"Why did you say all that to Hermione?" she said, looking up and frowning at her cousin.

"Oh come on," he scoffed, crossing his arms, "it was harmless."

"It was horrid!" Ebony cried. "She's my friend!"

"She shouldn't be, you shouldn't even go near the likes of her ."

Ebony rose to her feet, anger bubbling up inside her.

"Who the fuck are you trying to impress Draco?" She said, throwing her arms up in frustration. "There's no one here, you can drop your little 'act'."

Draco looked a little taken aback, his mouth slightly parted.

"Or is this you proving that you really are just a shitty person," she said coldly, "that you're just like the rest of them?"

He said nothing.

Ebony sunk back down onto the stump, her back to Draco. She wrapped her arms around herself.

She was cold, she was scared, she was tired and she was hungry. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be anywhere else but here.

There was a heavy silence between the two of them- apart from the noise from the campsite - that was only broken several minutes later by Draco.

"I'm sorry, okay?"

"It's not me who you should be apologising to." She spat.

"What, you want me to go find granger to say sorry?" He clearly found the idea ridiculous.

"Yes, I would actually." Ebony replied stiffly, still not turning to look at him. He sighed.

"Would you get off your moral high horse for five seconds?." Ebony finally turned to face him.

"Oh sorry," she said, "I'm merely showing that I'm capable of independent thought."

"The fuck does that mean?" He asked, clearly offended by her insinuation.

"It means," she sighed, crossing her legs, "There comes a time when you have to stop worshipping every word that comes out of their mouths. You're old enough to think for yourself."

Draco opened his mouth to reply but they both froze as they heard the sound of twigs snapping.

Soon enough both of their parents came through the woods, Ebony's parents and Lucius all with cloaks on and masks in their hands. Narcissa came up behind them and instantly walked over to Draco, wrapping her arms around him protectively.

"Time to go I think," Rodolphus said, wiping what looked like blood off of his chin.

...

Ebony knew her parents were Death Eaters. The war had been over for years and it was something that she just accepted and tried to ignore. But seeing the things they did, the things they were proud of doing, left a very uneasy and unpleasant feeling in her stomach.

She rubbed her arms as they walked up the drive, watching her mother practically skipping and drunkenly singing a vile song:

_Grab a muggle_

_Twist their neck_

_Oh, look at that!_

_The dirt is dead_!

It wasn't until they got into the hall of Lestrange Manor that Ebony finally snapped.

"Why did you do that?"

"What?" Rodolphus said, turning to look at his daughter as he shrugged his cloak off.

"All that horrid stuff at the campsite," she said, knowing full well that it was a terrible idea, "why did you do it?"

"They're just muggles don't know why you are making such a fuss," He sighed.

"They're people!"

"Barely," her mother scoffed.

"I knew that being in a house full of bloodtraitors would end up going to your head," Rodolphus muttered.

"That's got nothing to do with it!" Ebony cried.

"I might still write to Dumbledore, get that buffoon to fix things."

"No!" The thought of being taken from her friends and losing the one safe place she had found made her heart jump into her throat.

"You proud of what you are?" Bellatrix asked, a poisonous edge to her voice.

Ebony bit her lip and swallowed. "And what am I?"

"A good for nothing disgrace." She spat, "a stain on our name."

"I can think of worse things to be."

"Oh really, care to elaborate?"

"I could be a fucking death eater."

The wind was knocked out of her chest as Bellatrix seized her by the neck and rammed her up against the wall.

"Serving the Dark Lord is a great honour."

"Bullshit." Ebony choked.

"Say that again, you brat!" she cried, "I fucking dare you!"

Ebony couldn't have said it again even if she wanted to. She desperately gasped for air as her mother closed her fingers tighter around her throat. Her legs were flailing just above the ground but Bellatrix simply wore a sick grin.

"Put her down Bella," her father said nonchalantly.

Her mother didn't stop. Black spots appeared at the edge of her vision.

"Bella!" His voice sounded far more stern.

Ebony clawed at her mother's hands but it got her nowhere.

"Bellatrix!" Rodolphus' voice boomed around her and at last her mother let go. Ebony crumpled to the floor with a soft thud. She sat doubled over on her knees, coughing and spluttering.

Bellatrix strode over to Rodolphus and shoved him on her way into the living room. "You're no fun."

Ebony continued to take shallow breaths, running her hands over her throat. She looked up at her father. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. He closed his eyes and sighed.

"Go to your room," he said, his voice a little softer than usual.

...

Ebony lay on her bed, gently running her fingers over the splatter of purple bruises on her neck.

Her head was spinning.

Her cousin wasn't who she thought he was. Draco had always believed the pureblood mania that came out of his parents' mouths far more than she ever had but, deep down, Ebony hoped that maybe he would see that it was lies.

But what she saw from him earlier made her want to be sick. The words coming from his mouth were no less sharp than anyone else in their family.

Not only that but the whole evening had been a harsh reminder of who her parents were, what her whole family stood for.

And Ebony didn't like it one bit.

She squeezed her necklace - which was now in her hand to relieve pain from her neck- desperate for any form of comfort.

It took a moment but soon it buzzed gently in her hand.

Ebony let a small, quiet sob escape her lips.


	23. Fourth Year - 3

**Authors note : Just wanted to start off by saying that I know Harry Potter is having a hard time right now due JK Rowling being a twat but I want you to know that whoever you are, whoever you love, wherever you come from, you are valid and I love you. You are welcome here.**

**Anyway, shorter chapter today as it was just where it was most logical to split it - hopefully there should be another coming your way soon but i love procrastinating so i guess we'll see!**

**Also this fic is just over year old!**

**That is honestly crazy to me and looking back its so interesting to see how much my writing has improved!**

**Thank you to everyone who has made it this far - please tell me what you think or feel free to ask any questions :)**

**keep smiling out there you beautiful humans xx**

The summer had lasted for an eternity but soon enough Ebony was surrounded by the hustle and bustle of platform 9 ¾. Excitement bubbled up inside her, she was a step closer to home.

As usual, she stood and watched Draco be fussed over by his mother, smirking as she wiped his face with a handkerchief. When she was finally happy that her son looked respectable, Narcissa waved them off. Lucius would usually accompany them to the train but apparently, he and Rodolphus had business to tend to.

Her parents were definitely up to something

"I'm guessing that your disagreement didn't stop with me."

"What?" Ebony snapped out of her thoughts and watched Draco point to his own neck whilst looking at hers. She tutted and adjusted the Gryffindor scarf around her neck.

It had been nearly a week since it had happened but her mother's purple fingerprints were still visible on her skin and her neck still ached. It was not nearly cold enough to wear a scarf but Ebony didn't want to display the fact her mother had tried to kill her.

She really had the worst timing.

"What happened then?" Draco asked casually. It was a conversation that they had had far too many times.

"Take a guess."

"Auntie Bella?"

"Well done, 10 points to Slytherin," she said.

"What did you do this time?"

"Nothing!" She exclaimed. Draco just raised his eyebrows.

"If you say so."

Ebony sighed and digging her hands into her robe pockets, "well, maybe I said some things I shouldn't have."

"You never learn do you," he said, shaking his head and smiling.

"What can I say," she said with a smirk, " I like to live on the edge."

"And one of these days you're going to fall off."

"How poetic," she replied as she nudged him playfully. Draco elbowed her back before glancing over to where Blake's was waving him over.

"Well," he said, straightening his jacket, "guess I'll see you around?"

"Yeah, see you." She couldn't help but have mixed feelings as she watched him hurry off and disappear into the crowd. Going back to Hogwarts meant that she had to deal with her cousin being a dick as he 'kept up appearances' but this year, something had changed. Ebony hadn't forgotten what he had said in the woods and it made her heart sink as she realised that perhaps she had been rather childish and naïve. They were both being pushed down the same path but she seemed to be the only one trying to veer off course.

...

"Trevor?" Neville called anxiously while pulling up the seat cushions. He had been on the train for approximately ten minutes and his pet had already runoff.

"Somebody lost a toad?" He whirled round to meet the cheeky grin of Ebony, who was stood in the compartment doorway with Trevor on her outstretched palm. Neville breathed a sigh of relief.

"I need to get him on a lead," he muttered as he took Trevor from her hand and placed him on the seat. "Stay." He held up his hand. Trevor croaked at him. "good toad."

Ebony was merely smiling and shaking her head. "I've missed you."

Neville stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, "I bet I've missed you more." He felt her laugh against his chest before suddenly tensing up and inhaling sharply. He pulled away alarmed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." Ebony was rubbing her hand over the scarf tied around her neck. Neville frowned and lifted his hand to meet her neck but stopped when she flinched slightly. "I'm fine," she said far more firmly, waving him off, "nothing out of the ordinary."

"That doesn't fill me with confidence."

"Just-" Ebony sank onto the seat with a sigh - "can you just leave it? Please?"

Neville looked at her for a moment. She looked tired but that was nothing new. A full nights sleep was not something that came easy to her and he knew that. He also knew that going back home didn't help her nightmares either. He knew that pushing would just end up upsetting both of them.

He nodded, watching her physically relax as he did so.

"You've got taller again."

"I think it's far more likely that you are shrinking," Neville replied with a grin and Ebony playfully batted his arm.

"Oi, shut up!"

"Sorry I forgot you are sensitive about your height."

"I'm not that small," she said, crossing her arms and pouting, "You're just really tall."

"I'm average height, Ron and Ernie are both taller than me," Neville said, "Besides, it's not my fault our entire year is taller than you." Ebony narrowed her eyes. "And the year below," he added.

"I am not shorter than everyone," she said with a huff.

"Sorry," he said, "you're taller than Professor Flitwick."

"I will throw you off this train."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Ooh, fighting talk," Ebony mocked. "Well, when you are finished mocking my height," Ebony tucked her legs up underneath her as Neville sat down opposite her smirking, "tell about me about your summer."

"It was alright." Neville always felt bad going on about his holidays because he knew full well that she never had a pleasant time. He didn't want to sound as if he was boasting.

Ebony rolled her eyes.

"You are allowed to say you had a good time you know," she said, "I won't be offended."

Neville smiled guiltily. "Maybe it was more than alright," he said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Well go on then, tell me about it!" Ebony replied eagerly.

"Well-" he cleared his throat - " the first couple of weeks I just visited my parents and worked on planning a new extension to the greenhouse."

"Because you need more plant space."

"Oh don't," he groaned, " I've had gran on my back all summer because she found my Pixiepetals growing in the cellar."

"You need to get better at hiding things."

"I mean she hasn't found the devils snare under the bathroom sink yet."

"Emphasis on the yet," she said with a smirk. Neville pouted at her but it quickly turned into a smile. "What else did you do?"

"My uncle Algie took me fishing."

"I've never been fishing."

"It's rather dull," he admitted, "but I did get a chance to properly try out my birthday present."

"How was it?" She asked, looking slightly anxious.

"That magnifying glass," he said, digging around for it in his pocket and then holding it up, "is incredible." Ebony grinned.

"I hoped you would like it," she said, "I mean it's not a picnic by a lake by it was the best I could do."

"I love it, it's the best present I got." He couldn't help but smile as he watched his friend blush.

...

As the train trundled towards Hogwarts, they were soon joined by Seamus, Dean and Ginny who were eager to discuss the quidditch World Cup, much to Neville's jealousy.

"I asked her to get tickets but Gran didn't want to go," he grumbled.

"That sucks mate," Seamus said.

"I didn't even want to go but my parents dragged me along," Ebony sighed.

"You're parents are proper arseholes by the way."

"Seamus!" Ginny exclaimed. Ebony just laughed.

"Tell me about it, I'm the one who has to live with them," she said.

"What makes you say that?" Neville asked and Ebony sighed.

"My parents and I ran into Dean, Seamus and his family. It wasn't pretty."

"Seam's mum was ready to draw wands!"

Neville's mouth made a large 'O'.

"Good job she didn't," Ebony said, "I don't want to even think what my mother would've done to her."

"My mum's a great dueller. She could've taken her on easily!"

"Trust me, you have no idea what my dearest mother is capable of," she said grimly.

"What about the attack?" Neville asked, "I saw the headline in the Daily Prophet."

"A group of people in masks and hoods stormed the campsite and attacked the muggles running it," Dean explained, "they trashed everything, set fires. There was even a dark mark in the sky!"

"It was terrifying," Ginny shuddered.

"Starting to be glad I wasn't there," Neville said.

"The attack, it was your parents wasn't it?"

"Seamus!" Dean cried.

"What it's true isn't it?" He said, "they're death eaters, everyone knows it."

"That's horrid!" Ginny said.

"He's right," Ebony admitted, "it was them."

The compartment fell silent.

"I'm not sure why that's a surprise," she said dryly.

"Well... well, because," Seamus stammered, "we forget that...we forget THAT'S who they are...because...you're like...so not like that."

"Don't know why I would be. I'm not them."

"No you're not," Ginny said quietly and Ebony gave her an appreciative smile.

She was tired of having to defend herself. To prove that she wasn't blind to what kind of people her parents were. She of all people knew best what they were capable of.

"Right," Dean said, slapping his knees as he stood up, "I think we'll go and say hello to Harry and Ron."

"Yeah," Seamus said, following suit, "see you round lads."

The two of them slipped out of the compartment.

"I think I'll go find Luna," Ginny said and hugged Ebony and Neville goodbye, "see you when we get there."

And then she left in a blur of orange.

"Eventful summer by the sounds of it then?"

"Mmm, guess you could say that." Ebony had definitely had worse holidays but the summer had not been great, not in the slightest.

"Is it bruises?" Neville asked cautiously.

"What?" Ebony felt heat rise in her cheeks.

"On your neck?"

"Neville-" Ebony adored her friend but his caring nature could be rather overwhelming, why couldn't he just mind his own business for once?

"I know it's just I have some stuff in my bag if you want it."

Ebony paused, somewhat caught off guard. She looked up at Neville, who had the all too familiar look of concern in his eyes. Her eyes fell to her lap.

"Yes please," She said quietly.

Neville dug around in his rucksack before retrieving a jar of pale green paste. He held it out to her. "Could you," she swallowed, "could you do it?"

"Yeah, " he replied, looking a little surprised, "err... yeah sure."

Ebony slowly untied the scarf and unwrapped it from her neck. She looked up and met Neville's eyes which were filled with some sort of mix of anger and pain.

Ebony hated that look.

"It's not that bad, " she muttered.

Neville merely gave a strangled grunt.

He knelt on the seat next to her. He used his fingers to scoop up some of the paste and timidly reached towards her neck. As he rubbed it in gently, Ebony was struggling to work out of the tingling sensation was from the paste or his touch. She stared straight ahead and let her eyes close, enjoying the soothing feeling on her skin.

"She tried to strangle me." Ebony wasn't sure how the words left her mouth and they were so soft that if it wasn't for Neville's sharp intake of breath, she would've thought he hadn't heard her.

He put the jar down and carefully put his arm around her shoulders. He leant his head on hers, sniffling a little.

After eight long weeks, Ebony forgot how kind her best friend was. The boy that knew her better than her own family, who was there at her side no matter what. The boy who had her back and trusted that she had his. Her best friend who she was constantly convinced she didn't deserve.

He said nothing but she didn't need him to.

He was there.

That was enough.

...


	24. Fourth Year - 4

**author note: Parts of this are directly from the fourth book.**

**Im getting impatient now because even though I love a good bit of Angst, theres so much fluff on its way and i'm EXCITED.**

**Please let me know what you think.**

**Stay smiling you beautiful humans xx**

Even in the pouring rain, Hogwarts looked as magnificent as ever as Ebony looked out the window of the carriage. The warm glow from the castle's windows settled itself in Ebony's chest, filling her with the sense of safety that she spent all summer longing for.

It was a good job that the weather outside had them already soaked through because Peeves thought that the entrance hall was a good place to drop water balloons on the incoming students.

"Fucking hell!" Ebony cried as one got her right on the head and drenched her in freezing cold water. Neville ducked away from spray as Peeves killed himself laughing up in the rafters.

"Language Lestrange!" McGonagall exclaimed.

"Sorry, Professor," Ebony mumbled, her cheeks flushing.

"Peeves, away with you!" She barked.

Ebony wiped water out of her eyes. Neville came back to her side, biting on his bottom lip with a glint in his eyes.

"Don't you dare laugh," she said.

"It's a tiny bit funny." Ebony glared at him. "Not to mention your choice of words right next to Professor McGonagall."

"Shut up," she muttered.

As they entered the Great Hall, Ebony looked around with a smile. After a long summer with only herself for company, being surrounded by so many people brought her comfort in such a way that she couldnt quite explain.

The hat sang it's song of the year. It seemed that all it did when sitting on the shelf was write the song for next year as Ebony was almost certain that she had never heard the same one twice. She supposed that there wasn't much else for a dusty old hat to do.

Once the last first year had wandered over to their house table and Ebony had dried off a little, the feast appeared at last filling the hall with amazing smells.

"Dinner is served, madam," Neville said brightly as he put a plate of food in front of her. She just laughed at him.

"That makes it sound like you made it."

"Well I moved it from the bowl to your plate, basically counts."

"Sure," she said, shaking her head. As she looked down at her plate she stopped and then looked back up at Neville with a puzzled smile. "How did you know I wanted spaghetti and meatballs?"

"I'm a mind reader," he teased, causing Ebony to roll her eyes. "I know because that's what you always have on the first night because it's your favourite. Then, if you have any room, you go for chicken drumsticks or garlic bread. And you then have apple crumble for pudding."

"You noticed?" Ebony didn't even pay that much attention to her eating habits.

Neville just shrugged and dug into his own food.

"Of course I noticed."

She ignored the tips of her ears burning.

...

Ebony just finished her last spoonful of crumble when Dumbledore rose to his feet. The chatter died down almost instantly.

"So," he said, a friendly smile on his face, "Now that we are all fed and watered, I must ask for your attention."

"Mr Filch has asked me to tell you that the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has been once again extended and that the full list of four hundred and thirty-seven items may be viewed in his office," the corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched, "should anyone wish to familiarise themselves." Ebony watched as Fred and George smirked and nudged each other.

"As ever," Dumbledore continued, "the forest on grounds is strictly out of bounds for all students as is Hogsmeade to all below third year."

"Let's hope I'm no longer barred," Neville whispered into her ear.

"I'm sure you're not." Ebony most certainly hoped he wasn't as she rather missed going to the village but knew that she would feel guilty if she went on her own. That and also it felt rather dull going alone.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Ebony found herself to be the only one smiling as the hall burst into an uproar.

"What!?"

"You can't do that!"

Harry and Ron were looking around at the other members of the Gryffindor quidditch team, their faces appalled.

"No need to look so cheerful," Neville grumbled but Ebony just smiled wider.

"Hey," she said, tilting her head towards him, " at least you won't have to put up with my moaning." Neville chuckled.

"Good point."

Dumbledore remained at the front of the Hall, calmly trying to regain control of the situation. "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year. I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"

Dumbledore was cut off by a loud bang as the doors to the Great Hall burst open, followed by a loud rumble of thunder which made Neville jump and grab onto Ebony's hand.

In the doorway stood a cloaked figured, which every head in the Great Hall turned to look at. As the figure limped towards the head table he removed his hood. Ebony had never seen a man like him. As he shook out his long, thinning grey hair it fell limply around his heavily scarred face. His skin looked as though it had been carved onto his body and he had numerous scars that made his mouth and eye looked all lopsided The outstanding feature, however, was the large, vivid blue, eye which was swirling around in its socket in such a way that made Ebony's stomach churn.

She leaned over to Neville. "He gives me the creeps," she whispered. Neville shuddered in agreement.

He briefly stopped to shake Dumbledore's hand before taking his seat at the head table and started to help himself to a plate of sausages.

Dumbledore glanced back at him for a moment and then turned his attention back to the hall. "May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher," he said brightly into the stunned silence, gesturing to the man sat off to the side, "Professor Moody."

Only Hagrid and Dumbledore participated in the usual round of applause that greeted new staff. Everyone else just seemed to be transfixed by his appearance.

Moody. The name sounded somewhat familiar to Ebony and she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore said, "we are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" Fred said loudly, causing whatever tension had been left over from Moody's arrival to disappear as the hall broke out into laughter, even Dumbledore chuckled.

"I am not joking Mr Weasley," he said, "though now you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who went into a bar-"

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly, giving Dumbledore a stern look that was usually reserved for students.

"But perhaps this is not the time-" he glanced briefly back at McGonagall, who merely rolled her eyes at him-"no it's not... where was I? Oh yes, the Triwizard Tournament... well some of you will not know what this involves, so I hope those who do will not mind me giving a short explanation..."

Ebony listened in on the explanation of the tournament and was pleased that she was not the only one who seemed at least mildly alarmed at the words, 'the death toll mounted so high,'. "I feel like there is a good reason that this thing hasn't happened for over a century," she hissed into Neville's ear.

"Since when has anyone really been that bothered about health and safety?"

"It better not be too dangerous or Madam Pomfrey is going to throw a fit." Neville desperately tried to smother his laugh behind his hands.

"You're not wrong," he snorted quietly.

"The heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang," Dumbledore continued, "will arrive with their shortlisted contenders in October and the champions will be chosen on Halloween."

The hall burst into whispers as everyone put their heads together:

"I'm going for it!"

"Me too."

"I might give it a try."

"What do you reckon you'll have to do?"

"Hopefully it's not too dangerous."

"Kevin, did you not hear the words, 'death toll.'?"

Neville turned towards Ebony, "I think I might pass on this one, not really my speed."

"Going to have to agree with you on that," she replied, "I rather like being alive and having all my limbs attached."

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the cup to Hogwarts," Dumbledore spoke, raising his voice over the noise, "it has been decided that there is to be an age restriction as a safety measure. Only those who are 17 or over will be allowed to put their names forward."

The whispers had now turned into cries of outrage, which continued as the school filed out of the hall.

"I guess Gran would've wanted me to go for it," Neville sighed gloomily as they made their way towards Gryffindor tower, "She's always going on about me bringing a bit of pride to my family."

Ebony was about to say how she thought that Neville's gran should be proud of him anyway but was then distracted as his foot sunk into the trick step in the middle of the staircase and he toppled over.

"Every time," Ron muttered as he and Harry seized him by the armpits and helped him up. A nearby suit of armour clanked with laughter. "Shut up you," Ron shouted in response.

"My parents would probably have wanted me to do the same, " Ebony said once Neville had been freed from the stairs, "or they'd want me to do it in the hopes that you know, I wouldn't make it out alive."

Neville stopped and just blinked at her.

"Too morbid?"

"Just a little, Ebb," he said and Ebony held her hands up in surrender.

"My bad."

...

Ebony lay back against the sofa, tucking her hands deep inside the sleeves of her school jumper.

This was it. She was home.

She had rather forgotten just how warm and cosy it was. How much she loved being surrounded by smiles and laughter. The warm, red haze of the common room was a harsh contrast to the dark cold house that she lived in.

It felt as though she could let out a breath that she had been holding for the whole of the summer.

She wasn't quite sure what time it was but it was late and she was the only one left in the common room. Neville had stayed with her for a couple hours, both of them enjoying each other's company for the first time in a while, but eventually she persuaded him to go to bed as his eyes were clearly struggling to stay open.

Ebony wasn't anywhere near tired, she was still giddy from the arrival at Hogwarts. Sleep wasn't going to be on the cards anytime soon

"Well hello, there stranger."

Ebony turned to the source of the voice and grinned as she spotted who was stood at the bottom of the girl's dormitory stairs. "Ginny."

"It seems," she said, sitting down next to Ebony and pulling her knees up to her chest, "that still, neither of us can go to bed at a reasonable hour." Ebony laughed.

"It seems that way, yeah."

"Rest of your summer alright?"

"It was pretty average," Ebony said, "How was yours?" Ebony was rather eager to shift the conversation over to Ginny. She really didn't want to deal with follow up questions, not when she'd only just got away from her parents for the year.

"Dad was super busy after the World Cup," Ginny replied, "only saw him a few times in the last week, the ministry was a mess."

"So I heard." Her father found the mess at the ministry all too amusing.

_'They're all running around like headless chickens," he said from behind the Daily Prophet, "They tried to blame it on a house elf and some teenagers." He took a puff on his pipe. "To think that these idiots are in charge. It's disgraceful."_

_"Our time will come dear, don't you worry."_

Ebony always hated when her parents called each other 'dear' or other pet names. More often than not they were used in public to clearly communicate to one another, 'I want to rip your head off but right now there are far too many witnesses,' as any unaware person would think that they were just being an affectionate married couple. The odd times they were used at home just made Ebony feel uneasy. She wasn't sure why, it just didn't sit right with her.

As for 'Our time will come.' Ebony didn't want to dwell on that too much.

It scared her.

"Ebony?"

"Mm?" Ebony replied, coming out of her head.

"Can I ask you something?" She frowned a little.

"Sure."

"What happened to your neck?" At Ginny's words, Ebony's hand instantly jumped to clasp over her neck. She looked away.

"Nothing," she said a little too quickly and a little too brightly.

"Doesn't look like nothing."

Ebony just shrugged, " my mum got angry, that's all."

Not now, please not right now.

"You mean she..."

Ebony just shrugged again and looked away from her friend," she's done worse."

Ebony turned to see Ginny frowning with her mouth hanging slightly open and it occurred to her that the conversation of her home life hadn't gotten past 'my parents aren't that nice,'.

"It's fine Ginny."

"But...it's not though." Ebony just looked away. "Does Neville know about this?"

"Yes," she said quietly.

"Well, what does he say about it?"

"I don't want to talk about this Ginny."

"But-"

"I said no," she snapped, wrapping her arms tightly around her torso. She didn't want them here. Hogwarts was where they didn't have to exist and Ebony wanted to keep it that way.

"Alright," Ginny said softly, realising that the conversation was not going to happen.

The sound of the crackling fire filled the room.

The truth was Ebony hated having a part of her life that she had to explain. She'd realised once she'd started Hogwarts that lots of things in her life weren't 'normal' or 'right'. She was constantly having to make up excuses, brush off comments and avoid questions.

She knew her parents were horrible and disgusting people and, to an extent, she despised them.

But at the same time, it was hard to hate people you're supposed to love unconditionally.

And, underneath it all, they were her family and that had to mean something. Right?

"I don't tell people," Ebony said finally, " they get weird about it." Ginny frowned.

"Its because people care about you, they just want to make sure you're okay. That's what friends do."

"It just..." Ebony let out a deep sigh and rubbed her eyes. "it gets tiring after a while you know, explaining again and again." Ginny's eyes softened and she shuffled over to wrap her arms around Ebony.

"Well I can name at least five people off the top of my head who care about you very much," she said and Ebony just bit her lip, "and I know that Neville cares the same as another five just on his own."

Ebony gave a soft chuckle.


End file.
